Radiation increases fibrogenic cytokine expression by Peyronie's disease fibroblasts

Peyronie's disease is a crippling penile deformity that results from fibrosis in the tunica albuginea. To our knowledge its cause is unknown and empirical therapies are used extensively. A factor involved in the development of Peyronie's disease is fibrogenic cytokine over expression. Radiation therapy is an empirical therapy for this condition and, while some data suggest a role for it, no literature exists on the effects of radiation on tunical tissue or cells derived from this tissue. We evaluated the effect of radiation on fibrogenic cytokine production in cells cultured from Peyronie's disease plaque tissue.

Using a well established cell culture model cells derived from Peyronie's disease plaque tissue and neonatal foreskins were irradiated with 5 Gy (treatment group) or left nonirradiated (control group). At 24 hours cells were harvested and the supernatant was analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to determine the levels of the 2 fibrogenic cytokines basic fibroblast growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor-AB.

Four Peyronie's disease plaque derived cultures and 2 neonatal foreskin derived cultures were analyzed. All plaque derived fibroblasts demonstrated significant elevations in basic fibroblast growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor-AB compared with foreskin derived fibroblasts.

These data suggest that radiation may in fact increase the production of fibrogenic cytokines, which may promote the fibrotic process involved in Peyronie's disease. Further study is aimed at defining the effect of irradiation on plaque tissue.