Oxidative damage of chronic water avoidance and the effect of fulvic acid in male rat tissues with erectile dysfunction

Objective: Erectile dysfunction is an increasingly important infertility problem in the world. Physical and psychological conditions resulting in ED causing oxidative damage to the penile tissue. Fulvic acid is an antioxidant agent. With this in mind, water avoidance stress model will be use to determine whether or not it is beneficial in preventing penile tissue damage and ED. Material and Methods: In the experiments 250-300 gr. Sprague-Dawley male rats weighed were subjected to 10 days of water avoidance stress to produce chronic stress (n = 6), and to fulvic acid for 10 days for KS + FA (n = 6) treatment. Biochemical, histochemical and immunohistochemical changes were examined by taking the blood of the experimental groups and the penile tissues together with the control group. Results: When penile tissue specimens taken from KS group were examined, it was observed that loss of trabecular endothelial cells, decrease in collagen fibers and deterioration of thinning, connective tissue and smooth muscle distribution were observed compared to K group. When the KS + FA group was examined, there was no complete improvement in damage compared to the KS group, but the tissues showed some improvement. In the KS group, eNOS was decreased compared to the nNOS activity control group, and caveolin-1 reaction was observed to increase. Our histochemical and immunohistochemical findings were supported by the analysis of our biochemical data.Conclusion: Our study shows that in penile tissue histopathological changes in chronic stress related ED eNOS and nNOS activities decreases while caveolin-1 activity increases. To enhance this study caveolin-1 activity and fulvic acid effects need to be further investigated. Keywords: Erectile dysfunction, Water avoidance stress, Oxidative stress, Infertility, Fulvic acid