El452

ERG was performed 7 days after treatment. The rats were first adapted by keeping them for 30 minutes in the dark. Subsequently, the animals were anesthetized and corneal silver electrode was placed on the cornea, the reference needle electrode (#EL452, Biopac System, Goleta, CA, USA) was placed subcutaneously in the region of the skull and ground needle electrode (#EL450, Biopac System) was placed subcutaneously at the base of the tail (Shabelnikova et al., 2016). A stroboscope TSD122B with a flash of white light connected to the stimulator (#STM200, Biopac System) was placed in front of the animal. Evoked biopotentials were amplified using ERS100C Evoked Response Amplifier (#ERS100C, Biopac System). An MP150 data acquisition and analysis system (#MP150, Biopac Systems) was used to represent them graphically. Each rat was subjected to only a single stimulation of 0.5 seconds to obtain the ERG recording. Changes in the amplitudes of the a- and b-waves of ERG were used to assess the functional state of the retina after pre-treatment with MgAT and NMDA exposure. The readings from each group of eight animals were included into the protocol and used to calculate the mean.

Assessment of erectile function was performed at 1 week, 3 weeks, and 5 weeks after CN injury. ICP and MAP were measured as previously described.16 (link) Briefly, the rats were first anesthetized by intraperitoneal injection of 5% pentobarbital sodium (45 mg kg⁻¹). The right carotid artery and the penis were then exposed and separated, and two 24G needles connected to PE-50 tubes (Becton, Dickinson and Company, Franklin lakes, NJ, USA) with heparinized saline (250 IU ml⁻¹; Shuanghe Corporation, Beijing, China) were inserted into the corpus cavernosum and left carotid artery. The other end of each PE-50 tube was connected to a pressure acquisition system (MP150; BIOPAC system Inc., Goleta, CA, USA). The CN was then exposed as described previously, and electrostimulation (5 V, 20 Hz, pulse width 1 ms, duration 60 s) was applied with a bipolar hook electrode (EL452, BIOPAC system Inc.). During electric field stimulation (EFS) of the CN, the ratio of ICP/MAP was calculated to normalize for variations in systemic blood pressure. The parameters used for comparison were ICP/MAP maximum, area under the ICP/MAP curve, and the slope for ICP/MAP to reach 80% of the maximal ICP/MAP when electrically stimulated.