Development of an organ culture experimental system to investigate collagen synthesis in corpora cavernosa

An organ culture model of rabbit corpus cavernosum has been developed to investigate fibrillar collagen synthesis in intact organ. Rabbit peni were removed en bloc, the corpora cavernosa were dissected, sliced into 5 mm pieces and incubated in culture media up to 24 h. Tissue viability and metabolic and functional integrity were assessed by (a) lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, (b) protein synthesis, and (c) ability to respond to exogenously added cytokines. Explants, maintained for 24 h in organ culture, exhibited minimal LDH release and maintained functional integrity determined from protein synthesis and ability to synthesize collagen in response to TGF-beta(1). These data suggest that explants of rabbit corpus cavernosum in organ culture represent a viable model to investigate connective tissue protein biosynthesis in vitro.