Caloric Restriction Prevents Visceral Adipose Tissue Accumulation and Maintains Erectile Function in Aging Rats
Bibliographic record
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Increased adiposity is an important risk factor for erectile dysfunction (ED) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although accumulation of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is recognized as a key mediator in the pathogenesis of CVD, its role in ED has not been elucidated. AIM: To determine whether caloric restriction (CR) could prevent VAT accumulation and thereby prevent the onset of ED in normotensive rats. METHODS: Male Sprague Dawley rats (10 weeks) were randomized into three dietary groups: ad libitum control (CON), mild CR (CR(MI)), and moderate CR (CR(MOD)). Body weight (BW), body length abdominal girth (AG), and VAT (g-magnetic resonance imaging based) were assessed longitudinally. Erections were assessed using the apomorphine bioassay (80 µg/kg, SQ) after 20 weeks of CR. Excised VAT (mesenteric, epididymal, omental, and retroperitoneal), the internal pudendal artery (IPA) and serum were collected postmortem. Structure and function of the IPA was assessed at study end. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Erectile responses, adiposity (VAT), abdominal girth, serum analysis. RESULTS: BW (CON = 653 ± 58.6 g; CR(MI) = 535 ± 47.4 g; CR(MOD) = 409 ± 17.4 g) and VAT (CON = 39 ± 9.0 g; CR(MI) = 30 ± 9.9 g; CR(MOD) = 14 ± 3.5 g) were markedly different between the three groups. AG significantly correlated with longitudinal changes in VAT (R(2) = 0.61) and excised VAT (R(2) = 0.87). CR preserved erectile responses (CON = 0.6 ± 0.45, CR(MI) = 1.2 ± 0.77 g, CR(MOD) = 2.5 ± 0.43 g). A strong inverse correlation between VAT (%) and erectile function was found (R(2) = 0.74) whereas BW was less predictive of ED (R(2) = 0.48). There were no changes in traditional biomarkers (glucose, lipids) which could account for the ED. IPA structure was not different between groups, while CR(MOD) preserved endothelial function. CONCLUSIONS: CR effectively prevented VAT accumulation in normotensive rats. Independently of changes in other metabolic markers, this intervention ameliorated the negative impact on erectile responses that occurs with age. Functional changes of the IPA may be a key mechanism by which erections are preserved with CR. AG was shown to be a strong index of VAT in rats.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".