Impacts of denervation on the morphology and expression of neuronal nitric oxide synthase of prostate of adolescent rats / 中华男科学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the impacts of denervation on the morphology and the expression of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) of prostate of the adolescent rats.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Adolescent male SD rats were randomly divided into group A and group B. The right pelvic ganglion denervation was performed in group B with the help of surgical microscope, and group A received a sham operation. Five weeks later, the ventral prostates were obtained for morphologic observation, apoptosis detection and the evaluation of nNOS expression.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A 30.8% reduction of right ventral prostate (RVP) fresh weight was found in group B. After denervation, histological features showed an overall decrease in the numbers of cells and cell height, and apoptosis indexes (AI) was significantly higher than that in group A (P <0.01), while the expression of nNOS decreased apparently (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The study indicates that denervation can cause apoptosis of the prostatic, and affect the prostate growth of the adolescent rat. During this process, nNOS plays an important role in the regulation of apoptosis.</p>