The nonadrenergic noncholinergic-mediated relaxation of corpus cavernosum was impaired in chronic lithium-treated rats: Improvement with l-arginine

Lithium and sexual dysfunction: an under‐researched area

“…Relaxation responses with co‐administration of the nitric oxide (NO) donor sodium nitroprusside were similar in both groups, but in lithium‐treated preparations, though not in controls, relaxation was significantly enhanced by co‐administration of the NO precursor l‐arginine. This suggests that lithium can impair the NO‐mediated relaxation of cavernosal tissue, an effect reversible by l‐arginine (Sadeghipour et al ., ).…”

Chronic Lithium Impairs Skin Tolerance to Ischemia in Random-Pattern Skin Flap of Rats

“…Recent studies in our institution have undermined the links between lithium and nitric oxide system in erectile dysfunction [8,9,12]. Sadeghipour et al investigated the effect of chronic lithium treatment on the endothelium-mediated relaxation of rat isolated corpus cavernosal smooth muscle.…”

“…Chronic lithium treated animals received 600 mg/L lithium chloride (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) in their tap water for 4 wk preoperatively and 7 d postoperatively. This dose of lithium provides a sub-therapeutic plasma level of approximately 0.3 mmol/L in 4 wk period, as previously shown [12]. Acute lithium groups received three doses of lithium by local injection into their flaps after bipedicled flap elevation (Table 1).…”

Lithium decreased endothelium‐mediated, but not nonadrenergic noncholinergic, relaxation of guinea pig corpus cavernosum in vitro: a role for nitrergic system

“…These differences in results could be explained by the fact that in all of our previous studies, we used different isolated tissue strips from rats, but our study was performed on the guinea pig isolated cavernosal tissue strips, suggesting that these discrepancies in results might be because of the differences in the animal species used. In the rat corpus cavernosum, the maximal relaxant responses to acetylcholine aremuch higher than the same tissue from guinea pigs which is approximately 50% of maximal tone [23,24]. However, the relaxant responses to SNP and also neurogenic NANC relaxations seem to be similar between two species.…”

“…Although several studies have reported impotence in a considerable percent of lithium‐treated patients, the mechanism by which lithium causes erectile dysfunction has not been completely demonstrated. In our recent studies, we have shown that both chronic and acute administration of lithium could impair the endothelium‐dependent and neurogenic relaxation of isolated rat corpus cavernosum [23–25]. However, it is noteworthy that all of our previous studies have been performed in cavernosal tissues from rats and this effect in the isolated tissues from other animal species such as guinea pig has not been completely elucidated as yet.…”