The improvement of urethral function in the rat stress urinary incontinence model by electrical stimulation combined with pelvic floor muscle training to activate VEGF and ERK 1/2

Abstract

To explore the effect of electrical stimulation combined with pelvic floor muscle training on the improvement of urethral function in rats with stress urinary incontinence and to further study its possible mechanism. 48 rats were randomly divided into blank control group, model group, pelvic floor muscle training treatment group and electrical stimulation combined pelvic floor muscle training treatment group. The rehabilitation treatment group was treated with pelvic floor muscle training and combined electrical stimulation treatment after successful modeling. The sneeze test, urodynamics and pelvic floor muscle strength measurement were used to detect the rat urethra and pelvic floor muscle function. The expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor and extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2 genes in urethral tissue cells were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The rat sneeze test, urodynamics, pelvic floor muscle strength measurement, microvessel count and urethral histopathology results showed that the rat stress urinary incontinence model was successfully constructed and electrical stimulation combined with pelvic floor muscle training could significantly reduce the incidence of rate urinary incontinence and improve the pelvic floor muscle strength, the number of urethral capillaries and the repair of damaged vaginal nerves. Reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that after rehabilitation treatment, the expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor and extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2 were up-regulated and the up-regulation was more obvious in the combined electrical stimulation group. Electrical stimulation combined with pelvic floor muscle training could effectively improve the urethral function of rats and the action mechanism may be related to its activation of vascular endothelial growth factor and extracellular regulatory protein kinase extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2.