Morphometric and morphological features of the ventral prostate in rats submitted to chronic nicotine and alcohol treatment

Clinical studies analyzing simultaneous nicotine–alcohol use by patients showed important alterations in various organic systems such as: respiratory, digestory, and genital. Also, the prostatic morphology and physiology have been analyzed, specially due to large occurrence of prostatic diseases. Then, this work aimed at determining the structure and ultrastructure of the prostatic stroma and epithelium, as well as the stroma epithelium interactions from rats submitted to simultaneous long-term alcohol–nicotine treatment. A total of 40 male rats were divided into four groups: control group (10 animals) received tap water; alcoholic group (10 animals) received diluted 10% Gay Lussac ethanol; nicotine group (10 animals) received a 0.125 mg/100 g of body weight dose of nicotine injected subcutaneosly on a daily basis; nicotine–alcohol group (10 animals) received simultaneous alcohol and nicotine treatment. After 90 days of treatment, the animals were sacrificed and samples from the ventral lobe of the prostate were collected and processed for transmission electron and light microscopies. The results showed atrophied epithelium; prostatic intra-epithelial neoplasia; dilated cisterns of the granular endoplasmic reticulum, large amounts of collagen fibers besides inflammatory cells, specially in the alcoholic and nicotine–alcohol groups. Therefore, it could be concluded that the association between alcohol and nicotine caused the impairment of the prostatic secretory process. Moreover, this association is related to prostatic pathogenesis, which could lead to late glandular malignancy.