Sexual dysfunction in the diabetic bb/wor rat: a role of central neuropathy. McVary, Kevin T., Claire H. Rathnau, and Kevin E. McKenna. Division of Urology, Veterans Affairs Lakeside Medical Center, Department of Urology, Northwestern University Medical School, 303 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611, Department of Physiology, Northwestern University Medical School, 303 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611
APStracts 3:0266R, 1996.
The pathophysiologic mechanisms of diabetic impotence remain obscure. We have presented an analysis of sexual function in a diabetic rat (BB-WOR) model characterized by diffuse neuropathic changes without a confounding vasculopathy that allows us to define the neural components of erectile failure. Copulatory behavioral testing demonstrated that diabetic males were severely impaired: the controls mounted three times more than the diabetics and had about one half the latency to first mount. The diabetics had about one quarter the number of intromissions and took nearly twice as long to achieve first ejaculation. The number of ejaculations was drastically reduced as well. We examined sexual reflexes in the anesthetized, acutely spinalized rat. These experiments tested the integrity of spinal circuits controlling sexual function. Reflex testing demonstrated that spinal sexual reflexes were also severely impaired: the onset latency of reflexes was more than doubled and the duration of reflexes was less than half. More than half of the diabetic rats showed no penile erections. The reflex measures in those rats without erection had neural studies that were even more deranged. Nerve conduction velocity experiments suggested a peripheral neuropathic change in hypogastric nerve and motor pudendal nerve fibers. These dysfunctional findings were seen without any androgen deficiency. These results indicate that diabetic impotence in this model reflects both central and peripheral neuropathic disease processes. 

Received 21 March 1994; accepted in final form 20 June 1996.
APS Manuscript Number R140-4.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Regulatory Integrative
Comp. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 25 July 1996