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Effect of HongJing I in Treating Erectile Function and Regulating RhoA Pathway in a Rat Model of Bilateral Cavernous Nerve Injury
HongJing I (HJI), a traditional Chinese herbal formula, has been confirmed to be effective for the clinical treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). However, the mechanism of action of HJI remains unclear. Here, we aimed to investigate the effect and underlying mechanisms of HJI against ED in a rat m...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Hindawi
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6766086/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31636680 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/1083737 |
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author | Ye, Miao-yong Zhao, Fan Ma, Ke Zhou, Kang Huang, Wen-Jie Ma, Yin-feng Zhao, Jian-feng Fu, Hui-ying Xu, Zeng-bao Lv, Bo-dong |
author_facet | Ye, Miao-yong Zhao, Fan Ma, Ke Zhou, Kang Huang, Wen-Jie Ma, Yin-feng Zhao, Jian-feng Fu, Hui-ying Xu, Zeng-bao Lv, Bo-dong |
author_sort | Ye, Miao-yong |
collection | PubMed |
description | HongJing I (HJI), a traditional Chinese herbal formula, has been confirmed to be effective for the clinical treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). However, the mechanism of action of HJI remains unclear. Here, we aimed to investigate the effect and underlying mechanisms of HJI against ED in a rat model of bilateral cavernous nerve injury (BCNI). Rats were divided into five groups: normal control (NC), BCNI-induced ED model (M), M + low-dose HJI (HL), M + medium-dose HJI (HM), and M + high-dose HJI (HH). All groups were treated with normal saline or the relevant drug for 28 consecutive days after inducing BCNI-ED. At the end of the treatment period, the intracavernous pressure (ICP) was recorded, and histological examination was conducted using Masson's trichrome staining. Immunofluorescence staining and western blotting were applied to detect the changes in fibrosis protein and Ras homolog A (RhoA), Rho-associated protein kinase 1 (ROCK1), and ROCK2 expression. We found that HJI effectively improved the ICP in the treatment groups. In addition, RhoA, ROCK1, and ROCK2 expression levels were increased upon BCNI-ED induction, and HJI successfully inhibited cavernosum fibrosis and the activation of RhoA/ROCK2 signaling. Overall, these results suggest that the effects of HJI in attenuating ED may be caused, at least in part, by the suppression of RhoA/ROCK2 signaling and alleviation of fibrosis. However, the precise mechanism surrounding this requires further investigation in future studies. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6766086 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Hindawi |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-67660862019-10-21 Effect of HongJing I in Treating Erectile Function and Regulating RhoA Pathway in a Rat Model of Bilateral Cavernous Nerve Injury Ye, Miao-yong Zhao, Fan Ma, Ke Zhou, Kang Huang, Wen-Jie Ma, Yin-feng Zhao, Jian-feng Fu, Hui-ying Xu, Zeng-bao Lv, Bo-dong Evid Based Complement Alternat Med Research Article HongJing I (HJI), a traditional Chinese herbal formula, has been confirmed to be effective for the clinical treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). However, the mechanism of action of HJI remains unclear. Here, we aimed to investigate the effect and underlying mechanisms of HJI against ED in a rat model of bilateral cavernous nerve injury (BCNI). Rats were divided into five groups: normal control (NC), BCNI-induced ED model (M), M + low-dose HJI (HL), M + medium-dose HJI (HM), and M + high-dose HJI (HH). All groups were treated with normal saline or the relevant drug for 28 consecutive days after inducing BCNI-ED. At the end of the treatment period, the intracavernous pressure (ICP) was recorded, and histological examination was conducted using Masson's trichrome staining. Immunofluorescence staining and western blotting were applied to detect the changes in fibrosis protein and Ras homolog A (RhoA), Rho-associated protein kinase 1 (ROCK1), and ROCK2 expression. We found that HJI effectively improved the ICP in the treatment groups. In addition, RhoA, ROCK1, and ROCK2 expression levels were increased upon BCNI-ED induction, and HJI successfully inhibited cavernosum fibrosis and the activation of RhoA/ROCK2 signaling. Overall, these results suggest that the effects of HJI in attenuating ED may be caused, at least in part, by the suppression of RhoA/ROCK2 signaling and alleviation of fibrosis. However, the precise mechanism surrounding this requires further investigation in future studies. Hindawi 2019-09-16 /pmc/articles/PMC6766086/ /pubmed/31636680 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/1083737 Text en Copyright © 2019 Miao-yong Ye et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Ye, Miao-yong Zhao, Fan Ma, Ke Zhou, Kang Huang, Wen-Jie Ma, Yin-feng Zhao, Jian-feng Fu, Hui-ying Xu, Zeng-bao Lv, Bo-dong Effect of HongJing I in Treating Erectile Function and Regulating RhoA Pathway in a Rat Model of Bilateral Cavernous Nerve Injury |
title | Effect of HongJing I in Treating Erectile Function and Regulating RhoA Pathway in a Rat Model of Bilateral Cavernous Nerve Injury |
title_full | Effect of HongJing I in Treating Erectile Function and Regulating RhoA Pathway in a Rat Model of Bilateral Cavernous Nerve Injury |
title_fullStr | Effect of HongJing I in Treating Erectile Function and Regulating RhoA Pathway in a Rat Model of Bilateral Cavernous Nerve Injury |
title_full_unstemmed | Effect of HongJing I in Treating Erectile Function and Regulating RhoA Pathway in a Rat Model of Bilateral Cavernous Nerve Injury |
title_short | Effect of HongJing I in Treating Erectile Function and Regulating RhoA Pathway in a Rat Model of Bilateral Cavernous Nerve Injury |
title_sort | effect of hongjing i in treating erectile function and regulating rhoa pathway in a rat model of bilateral cavernous nerve injury |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6766086/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31636680 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/1083737 |
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