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Proteins and Erections

Believe it or not, rats and humans share similarities which mimic many relevant features of human erectile dysfunction. So researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Case Western Reserve University have identified molecular changes in rats. These molecular changes accompany the onset of diabetes induced erectile dysfunction, which could gain insight and help indentify erectile dysfunction risk leading to potentially new drug discoveries into erectile dysfunction.

One of the most common problems induced in men with diabetes is erectile dysfunction. It is estimated that over 70% of men with diabetes suffer some for of erectile dysfunction, and in many cases actually develop more drug resistant forms of erectile dysfunction.

The corpora, which are the tissues that expand along the length of the penis by filling with blood during an erection, were studied in rats with diabetes. A proteomics approach to examine the relative abundance of proteins was used by Mark Chance and colleagues at two different stages of progression of the onset of diabetes. These two different stages were one week after the onset, and then at two months. They identified 57 different proteins in the tissues of the penis that had either decreased or increased during these controlled tests by comparing them to other age matched healthy rats.

Mechanics of erectile dysfunction
These proteins actually revealed some of the mechanics of erectile dysfunction. Collagen proteins provide the strength and hardness in an erection were not surprisingly down-regulated in the diabetes rats. The proteins that transport sex hormones were also down. Up regulated proteins were also revealed. The ones related to fat metabolism, which are responsible for the hardening and narrowing of blood vessels were among the up related ones as well as proteins involved in the death of cells (apoptosis).

The researches believe these insights into the proteins involved with erectile dysfunction could very well lead to the discovery of the medicines that may help diabetic men maintain a better quality of life with their partners. Ream more about these study at ScienceDaily.com