Abstract
Background: Currently, there are relatively few studies on the effects of changes in estrogen and androgen levels on prostatic MVD.This article aimed to study the changes of prostatic MVD in SD rats after castration under the effect of estrogen/androgen at different concentrations.Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats aged 3-4 months were randomly divided into the control group, castration group, and different concentrations of estrogen/ androgen treatment after castration. Dihydrotestosterone(DHT) and estradiol(E) were administered daily by subcutaneous injection for one month. All the rats were sacrificed by cervical dislocation after one month, and the serum DHT and E concentrations of the rats in each group were measured by ELISA assay. Prostate tissues specimens were immunohistochemically stained with monoclonal antibodies against CD-34 and factor VIII for the MVD.Results: Compared with the control group, the MVD decreased significantly in the castration group (P<0.05). When the exogenous E concentration was constant, in general, the MVD of rats in all the groups increased with the increase of exogenous DHT concentration; Among them, compared with the castration group, the MVD increased significantly in the E0.05+DHT0.015 mg/kg group, E0.05+DHT0.05 mg/kg group, E0.05+DHT0.15 mg/kg group, E0.05+DHT0.5 mg/kg group, and E0.05+DHT1.5 mg/kg group (P<0.05). In addition, when the exogenous DHT concentration was constant, the MVD increased with the increase of exogenous E concentration in all the groups; Among them, compared with the control and castration group, the MVD increased significantly in the DHT0.15+E0.015 mg/kg group, DHT0.15+E0.15 mg/kg group, and DHT0.15+E0.5 mg/kg group (P<0.05).Conclusions: Androgens carried an important role in the regulation of prostatic MVD in SD rats, and the decrease of DHT concentration can induce a decrease in prostatic MVD. In contrast, prostatic MVD can be increased with the increase of DHT concentration. In addition, prostatic MVD can be increased gradually with the increase of estrogen concentration.