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Ultrasonography of the Adult Male Urinary Tract for Urinary Functional Testing

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Significant decrease of extracellular matrix in prostatic urethra of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Marcio A Babinski¹, Jorge H M Manaia², Gilberto P Cardoso²

¹Urogenital Research Unit, Department of anatomy - State University of Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro, and Experimental Morphology and Morphometry Unit, Department of Morphology, Fluminense Federal University - Niterói, Brazil. mababinski@gmail.com.

Histology and Histopathology

|June 22, 2013

Summary

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) significantly reduces elastic fibers and collagen in the prostatic urethra. This study quantifies these histological changes in BPH patients compared to controls.

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Laser-capture Microdissection of Human Prostatic Epithelium for RNA Analysis

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Area of Science:

Urology
Histology
Pathology

Background:

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) causes urethral resistance and prostatic urethra lengthening due to nodular tissue expansion.
Understanding histological changes in the prostatic urethra is crucial for BPH management.

Purpose of the Study:

To quantitatively analyze and compare the histological components of the prostatic urethra in patients with BPH versus a control group.
To investigate the impact of BPH nodules on urethral histological composition.

Main Methods:

Stereological methods, specifically the point-count technique with an M-42 grid, were used to determine volumetric density (Vv) of histological components.
Tissue samples from ten BPH patients (age 63-79) and ten young controls (age <25) were analyzed.
Quantitative data were statistically analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Mann-Whitney U tests.

Main Results:

A statistically significant decrease in the volumetric density of the elastic fiber system was observed in BPH patients (17.12±1.1) compared to controls (20.3±0.3) (p<0.007).
Collagen compartment volume density was also significantly reduced in BPH cases (25.1±2.4) versus controls (29.7±1.9) (p<0.03).
Smooth muscle cell volume showed a non-significant increase in BPH patients (52.3±2.3) compared to controls (49.9±0.4).

Conclusions:

BPH nodules are associated with a significant reduction in both elastic fibers and collagen within the prostatic urethra.
These histological alterations may contribute to the urethral resistance observed in benign prostatic hyperplasia.