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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Dissection of Pelvic Autonomic Ganglia and Associated Nerves in Male and Female Rats
Published on: March 7, 2020
Beta-adrenergic receptor blockade and prostate peptide growth factor expression in the rat
Dionisios Mitropoulos1, Aspasia Kyroudi-Voulgari, Filia Stratigea
11st Department of Urology, Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece. dmp@otenet.gr
Background And Aim:
In the rat prostate, beta-adrenoreceptor (beta-AR) stimulation does not alter basal prostatic tone but may inhibit alpha1-AR-mediated, field stimulation-induced or receptor-independent contractile responses. The present study was designed to assess the alteration of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGFbeta) expression in the rat ventral prostate in response to beta-AR blockade with propranolol.
Results:
At sacrifice, body weight as well as ventral prostate weight and prostate morphology were not significantly affected by propranolol treatment. Stromal elements and the majority of prostatic epithelial cells in control animals demonstrated positive staining for the anti-bFGF antibody, while positive staining for TGFbeta was seen only in epithelial cells. Propranolol treatment resulted in considerable decrease of bFGF staining intensity in both stromal and epithelial cells, while the immunostaining pattern for TGFbeta was almost abolished.
Results And Conclusions:
The results from this study provide evidence to suggest that prolonged propranolol treatment affects peptide growth expression in the rat ventral prostate as in other tissues, and confirms the notion that autonomic nervous system controls, at least partly, prostate gland functional characteristics. Moreover, it may also affect prostate homeostasis by intervening in stromal-epithelial interaction through alterations in the expression of peptide growth factors without affecting prostate volume.
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