Influence of insulin and testosterone on diabetic rat ventral prostate: Histological, morphometric and immunohistochemical study

Many studies have reported high prevalence of hypogonadism amongst the diabetic patients suggesting the therapeutic benefits of testosterone hormone administration to these patients. The present research was carried out to study the possible role of insulin, testosterone and combined insulin and testosterone therapy on the diabetic rat ventral prostate. Fifty-eight adult male albino rats were used and divided into 2 main groups; the control and the experimentally induced diabetic group that given a single intra-peritoneal injection of STZ (60 mg/kg). The rats with confirmed DM were subdivided into: diabetic group that kept without treatment, diabetic–testosterone group (100 mg/kg/4 weeks, S.C.), diabetic–insulin group (5 IU/day/rat, S.C.) and diabetic–insulin–testosterone group. After 8 weeks, the ventral prostatic lobes were dissected and processed for paraffin blocks to study the epithelial height, mast cell number, expression of AR, PCNA and active caspase-3. DM induced a significant decrease in mast cells number, epithelial height and androgen receptors (AR) with a significant increase in the apoptotic index. On the other hand, the epithelial cells showed a non-significant change in the proliferation rate compared to the control group. Treatment with testosterone induced a significant increase in the epithelial height, number of mast cells & AR positive epithelial cells and a non-significant increase in PCNA with a significant decrease in the active caspase-3. Treatment with insulin showed abundant mast cells in the stroma with a significant increase in epithelial height & AR with decrease in active caspase-3 positive cells and insignificant changes in PCNA. Combined treatment with both hormones produced similar outcomes to the group treated with insulin alone. It was concluded that diabetes leads to alterations in rat ventral prostate gland. Early insulin treatment attenuates these effects with preserving most of the measured parameters within the normal values. Furthermore, addition of testosterone to insulin did not seem to produce a significant therapeutic add.