OBJECTIVETo set up a method of establishing the animal model of psychical erectile dysfunction with emotional stress.

METHODSAll thirty-six male rats with normal sexual function were divided into three groups, i. e. normal group, model group and demasculinized group randomly according to their weights. The rats in the model group were suspended upside down in midair over the water and irritated repeatedly. Two weeks later, the sexual abilities of all rats, i. e. the times of mounting and intromitting the estrus female rats, the latent period of mounting, intromission and ejaculation, were recorded, and the number of rats that had sexual activities was also counted. And the hemorheology indices of the rats were measured.

RESULTSCompared with the normal rats, the latency of mounting [(152.5 +/- 24.6) s vs (42.4 +/- 9.6) s] and intromission [(437.0 +/- 67.7) s vs (130.8 +/- 39.1) s] of the model rats were longer (P < 0.01), but the latency of ejaculation [(385.3 +/- 80.0) s vs (547.3 +/- 69.4) s] was shorter (P < 0.05) than that of the normal. There was no significant difference in the times of mounting between normal [(38.3 +/- 6.1) vices and model rats (38.5 +/- 5.4) vices], but the intromission times of model rats [(9.2 +/- 1.7) vices] was lower than that of the normal rats [(20.3 +/- 3.1) vices], P < 0.01. Compared with the normal rats, the sexual activity incidence of the model rats (mounting: 58.3%, intromission: 33.3%, ejaculation: 16.7%) was significant lower than that of the normal rats (100%) (P < 0.01). But there was no significant difference in the sexual ability between the model and the demasculinized rats (P > 0.05). The hemorheology indices, e. g. blood viscosity, hematocrit (Hct) and red cell aggregation (RCA), of the model rats was significant higher than that of the normal and demasculinized rats (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between the normal and demasculinized rats.

CONCLUSIONThe rat model of psychical erectile dysfunction can be made ideally with psychical stress.