Significant physiological roles of ancillary penile nerves on increase in intracavernous pressure in rats: experiments using electrical stimulation of the medial preoptic area

Abstract

The objectives of this work were to evaluate the contributions of the ancillary penile nerves to penile erection in male rats in vivo. We investigated the effects of unilateral and bilateral transection of the cavernous nerve (main penile nerve) on the increase in intracavernous pressure (ICP) following electrical stimulation of the medial preoptic area (MPOA) in male rats in vivo. After unilateral or bilateral transection of the cavernous nerve (main penile nerve), the ICP responses showed decreases of 28% and 55%, respectively compared to those ICP responses before transection. In other words, even after bilateral transection of the cavernous nerve, signi®cant increases in the ICP response following central stimulation were observed. In contrast to these ®ndings, the ICP response was completely eliminated following bilateral pelvic nerve transection. These data suggested that the ancillary penile nerves, which originate from the major pelvic ganglia, have a complementary role to the cavernous nerves in the autonomic motor innervation of the penis.

Nerve injury‐related erectile dysfunction following nerve‐sparing radical prostatectomy: A novel experimental dissection model

“…One possible reason for this discrepancy was that the ancillary penile nerves, as well as the cavernous nerve played an important role for erection in rats. 18 Another might be that the results of active retrograde tracing studies using FG did not always parallel the changes of ICP/AP assessed with passive electrical stimulation.…”

Functional outcomes and oncological efficacy of Vattikuti Institute prostatectomy with Veil of Aphrodite nerve‐sparing: an analysis of 154 consecutive patients

“…Thus, while expert surgeons achieve a high potency rate, the quality of erections is impaired in many patients, and it is unlikely that these results are because of technical misadventures. Several investigators have reported on the presence of nerves within the lateral prostatic fascia [11,12]. We reasoned that the excellent visualization of periprostatic anatomy afforded by the Insite TM vision system and enhanced dexterity of movement provided by the endowristed instruments of the da Vinci surgical system would enable us to preserve the nerves within the prostatic fascia (Veil of Aphrodite); this might result in better erectile function.…”

Alteration of glial cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor family receptor alpha‐2 mRNA expression and its co‐expression with neuronal nitric oxide synthase in pelvic ganglia following unilateral cavernous nerve injury

“…14 In these models, there were no differences in the baseline intracavernous pressures, although the response to the medial preoptic area stimulation (150 mA, and 30 Hz for 2 min) in the transection models showed significantly lower than sham model as previously reported. 14,15 As sham operation, the MPG and cavernous nerves were only exposed and the abdominal wound was just closed. Six MPG from three rats at 3 months following sham operation and 12 MPG (six intact-side MPG and six injured-side MPG) from six rats at 3 months following unilateral cavernous nerve injury were used for the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) study.…”