Urine-Derived Stem Cells Versus Their Lysate in Ameliorating Erectile Dysfunction in a Rat Model of Type 2 Diabetes

Rania A Galhom; Horeya Erfan Korayem; Mahrous A Ibrahim; Ahmed Abd-Eltawab Tammam; Mohamed Mansour Khalifa; Eman K Rashwan; Manal H Al Badawi

doi:10.3389/fphys.2022.854949

Urine-Derived Stem Cells Versus Their Lysate in Ameliorating Erectile Dysfunction in a Rat Model of Type 2 Diabetes

Front Physiol. 2022 May 10:13:854949. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.854949. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Rania A Galhom^{1

2}, Horeya Erfan Korayem³, Mahrous A Ibrahim^{4

5}, Ahmed Abd-Eltawab Tammam^{6

7}, Mohamed Mansour Khalifa^{8

9}, Eman K Rashwan^{6

10}, Manal H Al Badawi¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Human Anatomy and Embryology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
² Tissue Culture Unit, Centre of Excellence in Molecular and Cellular Medicine (CEMCM), Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
³ Histology and Cell Biology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
⁴ Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology, College of Medicine, Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
⁶ Medical Physiology Department, College of Medicine, Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Medical Physiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt.
⁸ Department of Human Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁹ Department of Human Physiology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ Medical Physiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, Egypt.
¹¹ Human Anatomy and Embryology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

Background: Diabetic erectile dysfunction (DED) is a significant consequence of diabetes mellitus, and it is a multifactorial phenomenon that has no definitive treatment until now. Many therapeutic options provide symptomatic improvement rather than addressing the underlying etiology or restoring normal function. Stem cell (SC) therapy represents a potential hope in DED management. It is well established that the regenerative effect of stem cells can be attained by their paracrine action and their ability to differentiate into many cell lineages, including endothelial and smooth muscle cells. Hence, we tried to compare the effects of transplantation of urine-derived stem cells (USCs) or their lysate (USC-L) into the corpora cavernosa (CCs) of rats with DED. Materials and Methods: A total of 55 adult male Wistar rats were included in this study. USCs were obtained from ten healthy rats. Another ten rats did not subject to any intervention and served as a control (group I). Type 2 DM and DED were induced in the remaining 35 rats, but DED was tested and proved in only 24 rats, which were randomly divided into three groups (n = 8 in each). The DED group (group II) and either USCs (2 × 10⁶ cells) or their lysate (200 μl) were transplanted into the CCs of each rat in the other two groups (groups III and IV), respectively. Results: Although the DED rats exhibited deterioration in all copulatory functions as compared to the control group, our histopathological, immunohistochemical, and morphometric results revealed that both USCs and USC-L have significantly restored the cavernous spaces, the ultrastructures of the endothelium that line the cavernous spaces, collagen/smooth muscle ratio, and the mean area percentage of α-SMA in the CCs as compared to DED rats. A respectable number of USCs was detected in the CCs of group III at the 4th week after transplantation, but this number significantly declined by the 8th week. Conclusion: Both USCs and USC-L can repair the structure and ultrastructure of CCs and improve the copulatory functions in the DED rat model. However, USC-L could be better used in DED to guard against the strange behavior of USCs after transplantation and their decreased survivability with time.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus; erectile dysfunction; lysate; rats; urine-derived stem cells (UDSCs).