Apoptosis in rat erectile tissue induced by castration

Aim: To investigate the effect of androgen on the structure of corpus cavernosum. Methods: Thirty mature rats wererandomized into 3 groups, i.e., simple castration, castration with testosterone (T) supplementation and sham-operatedcontrols. One week after operation, the animals were sacrificed and corpora cavenosa harvested. Apoptosis was detect-ed with the in situ end labeling (ISEL) techniques and DNA fragment analysis. Results: The apoptotic rate was4.19 % in the simple castrated rats, 0.2 % in castrated rats supplemented with T and 0.14 % in the controls. Signifi-cant difference was found between the simple castrates and other two groups (P < 0.01). When comparing the T-sup-plementation group with the controls, there was no statistical difference (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Castration inducedapoptosis in rat corpus cavernosum, that could be prevented by T supplementation. It suggests that androgen plays animportant role in maintaining the structure of corpus cavernosum. (Asian J Androl 1999 Dec; 1: 181-185)