Pm. Newhall et al., DEVELOPMENT OF AN ORGAN-CULTURE EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEM TO INVESTIGATE COLLAGEN-SYNTHESIS IN CORPORA CAVERNOSA, International journal of impotence research, 10(2), 1998, pp. 77-81
An organ culture model of rabbit corpus cavernosum has been developed
to investigate fibrillar collagen synthesis in intact organ. Rabbit pe
ni were removed en bloc, the corpora cavernosa were dissected, sliced
into 5 mm pieces and incubated in culture media up to 24 h. Tissue via
bility and metabolic and functional integrity were assessed by (a) lac
tate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, (b) protein synthesis, and (c) abili
ty to respond to exogenously added cytokines. Explants, maintained for
24 h in organ culture, exhibited minimal LDH release and maintained f
unctional integrity determined from protein synthesis and ability to s
ynthesize collagen in response to TGF-beta(1). These data suggest that
explants of rabbit corpus cavernosum in organ culture represent a via
ble model to investigate connective tissue protein biosynthesis in vit
ro.