Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Article
  • Published:

Injection of skeletal muscle-derived cells into the penis improves erectile function

International Journal of Impotence Research volume 18, pages 329–334 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

We investigated the effect of intrapenile injection of muscle-derived cells (MDC) on the erectile function in rats with bilateral cavernous nerve injury. Rat MDC were harvested and transduced with a retrovirus expressing the lacZ gene. Hanks’ balanced salt solution (HBSS) (20 μl) or MDC (1 × 106 cells/side) were injected in each corpora cavernosa immediately before bilateral cavernous nerve transection. Intracavernous pressures (ICP) were measured 2 or 4 weeks after surgery with electrical stimulation of the pelvic nerves. Mean maximal ICP of sham group was significantly lower than that of control group both at 2 and 4 weeks after surgery. When MDC were injected into the penis, ICP improved over the sham-injected group at both 2 and 4 weeks after surgery. Percent area of PGP 9.5 staining was significantly greater in MDC-injected penis than in sham-injected at 2 and 4 weeks. Penile MDC injection can facilitate recovery of injured penile innervation and improve erectile function.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Talcott JA, Rieker P, Propert KJ, Clark JA, Wishnow KI, Loughlin KR et al. Patient-reported impotence and incontinence after nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy. J Natl Cancer Inst 1997; 89: 1117–1123.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Montorsi F, Salonia A, Zanoni M, Colombo R, Pompa P, Rigatti P et al. Counselling the patient with prostate cancer about treatment-related erectile dysfunction. Curr Opin Urol 2001; 11: 611–617.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Cohn JH, El-Galley R . Radical prostatectomy in a community practice. J Urol 2002; 167: 224–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Munding MD, Wessells HB, Dalkin BL . Pilot study of changes in stretched penile length 3 months after radical retropubic prostatectomy. Urology 2001; 58: 567–569.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Poulsom R, Alison MR, Forbes SJ, Wright NA . Adult stem cell plasticity. J Pathol 2002; 197: 441–456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Deasy BM, Jankowski RJ, Huard J . Muscle-derived stem cells: characterization and potential for cell-mediated therapy. Blood Cells Mol Dis 2001; 27: 924–933.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Yokoyama T, Huard J, Chancellor MB . Myoblast therapy for stress urinary incontinence and bladder dysfunction. World J Urol 2000; 18: 56–61.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Yokoyama T, Huard J, Pruchnic R, Yoshimura N, Qu Z, Cao B et al. Muscle-derived cell transplantation and differentiation into lower urinary tract smooth muscle. Urology 2001; 57: 826–831.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Yokoyama T, Pruchnic R, Kumon H, Chuang YC, Yoshimura N, de Groat WC et al. Autologous primary muscle-derived cells transfer into the lower urinary tract. Tissue Eng 2001; 7: 395–404.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Yokoyama T, Yoshimura N, Dhir R, Qu Z, Fraser MO, Kumon, H et al. Persistence and survival of autologous muscle derived cells versus bovine collagen as potential treatment of stress urinary incontinence. J Urol 2001; 165: 271–276.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Chancellor MB, Yokoyama T, Tirney S, Mattes CE, Ozawa H, Yoshimura N et al. Preliminary results of myoblast injection into the urethra and bladder wall: a possible method for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence and impaired detrusor contractility. Neurourol Urodyn 2000; 19: 279–287.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Chancellor MB, Yoshimura N, Pruchnic R, Huard J . Gene therapy strategies for urological dysfunction. Trends Mol Med 2001; 7: 301–306.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Somogyi GT, Yokoyama T, Szell EA, Smith CP, de Groat WC, Huard J et al. Effect of cryoinjury on the contractile parameters of bladder strips: a model of impaired detrusor contractility. Brain Res Bull 2002; 59: 23–28.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Lee JY, Cannon TW, Pruchnic R, Fraser MO, Qu Z, Pruchnic R et al. The effects of periurethral muscle-derived stem cell injection on leak point pressure in a rat model of stress urinary incontinence. Int Urogynecol J Pelvic Floor Dysfunct 2003; 14: 31–37.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Huard J, Pruchnic P, Yokoyama T, Smith, CP, Qu Z, Kumon, H et al. Muscle-derived cell-mediated ex vivo gene therapy for urological dysfunction. Gene Therapy 2002; 9: 1617–1626.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Romero-Ramos M, Vourc'h P, Young HE, Lucas PA, Wu Y, Chivatakarn O et al. Neuronal differentiation of stem cells isolated from adult muscle. J Neurosci Res 2002; 69: 894–907.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Pruchnic R, Yokoyama T, Lee JY, Huard J, Chancellor MB . Muscle derived cell mediated ex vivo gene transfer to the lower urinary tract: comparison of viral vectors. Urol Res 2002; 30: 310–316.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Ferry N, Duplessis O, Houssin D, Danos O, Heard JM . Retroviral-mediated gene transfer into hepatocytes in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1991; 88: 8377–8381.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Dedkov EI, Kostrominova TY, Borisov AB, Carlson BM . Survival of Schwann cells in chronically denervated skeletal muscles. Acta Neuropathol (Berlin) 2002; 103: 565–574.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Geuna S, Raimondo S, Nicolino S, Boux E, Fornaro M, Tos P et al. Schwann-cell proliferation in muscle-vein combined conduits for bridging rat sciatic nerve defects. J Reconstr Microsurg 2003; 19: 119–123.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Bochinski D, Lin GT, Nunes L, Carrion R, Rahman N, Lin CS et al. The effect of neural embryonic stem cell therapy in a rat model of cavernosal nerve injury. BJU Int 2004; 94: 904–909.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH HD39768; DK55387; Cook-Myosite Inc.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pitsburgh, PA, USA

    Y Kim, F de Miguel, I Usiene, D Kwon, N Yoshimura & M B Chancellor

  2. Department of Urology, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongiu, Chungbuk, Republic of Korea

    Y Kim

  3. Department of Urology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Chonnam, Republic of Korea

    D Kwon

  4. Growth and Development Laboratory, Rangos Research Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    J Huard

Authors
  1. Y Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. F de Miguel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. I Usiene
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. D Kwon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. N Yoshimura
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. J Huard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. M B Chancellor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M B Chancellor.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kim, Y., de Miguel, F., Usiene, I. et al. Injection of skeletal muscle-derived cells into the penis improves erectile function. Int J Impot Res 18, 329–334 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijir.3901434

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijir.3901434

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links