N-acetylcysteine ameliorates erectile dysfunction in rats with hyperlipidemia by inhibiting oxidative stress and corpus cavernosum smooth muscle cells phenotypic modulation

作者：Wei Ding, Junhong Fan, Liren Zhong, Nan-Xiong Wang, Lu-Hao Liu, Haibo Zhang, Li Wang, Mingqiang Wang, Binglin He, Anyang Wei · 发表于：Asian Journal of Andrology · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.4103/aja202324 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Sexual function and dysfunction studies、Hormonal and reproductive studies、Vitamin D Research Studies

Hyperlipidemia is a major risk factor for erectile dysfunction (ED). Oxidative stress and phenotypic modulation of corpus cavernosum smooth muscle cells (CCSMCs) are the key pathological factors of ED. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) can inhibit oxidative stress; however, whether NAC can alleviate pathological variations in the corpus cavernosum and promote erectile function recovery in hyperlipidemic rats remains unclear. A hyperlipidemia model was established using 27 eight-week-old male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats fed a high-fat and high-cholesterol diet (hyperlipidemic rats, HR). In addition, 9 male SD rats were fed a normal diet to serve as controls (NC). HR rats were divided into three groups: HR, HR+normal saline (NS), and HR+NAC (n = 9 for each group; NS or NAC intraperitoneal injections were administered daily for 16 weeks). Subsequently, the lipid profiles, erectile function, oxidative stress, phenotypic modulation markers of CCSMCs, and tissue histology were analyzed. The experimental results revealed that erectile function was significantly impaired in the HR and HR + NS groups, but enhanced in the HR + NAC group. Abnormal lipid levels, over-activated oxidative stress, and multi-organ lesions observed in the HR and HR + NS groups were improved in the HR + NAC group. Moreover, the HR group showed significant phenotypic modulation of CCSMCs, which was also inhibited by NAC treatment. This report focuses on the therapeutic effect of NAC in restoring erectile function using a hyp...