Pathophysiology of psychogenic erectile dysfunction inthe central nervous system

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We applied the high-voltage electron microscopy (HVEM) tomography assisted by light microscopy to a study of the 3-D chemical neuroanatomy of the rat lower spinal cord annotated by double-labeling immunohistochemistry. This powerful methodology is useful for studying molecular and/or chemical neuroanatomy at the 3-D ultrastructural level. The induction of phosphorylated extracellular signal-related kinase (pERK) is well accepted as a marker for neuronal activation. Consequently, we studied the expression of pERK in the gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) neurons after ejaculation. This revealed that pERK induction in the GRP neurons appeared to be specifically associated with ejaculation, suggesting the activation of GRP neurons during male sexual behavior.