Effect of tadalafil treatment on ovarian ischemia injury in rats

Purpose: Ovarian ischemia, which is known as one of the most common gynecologic surgery emergencies in women of all ages, is the distruption of the ovarian perfusion. Herein, we aimed to investigate the effect of tadalafil, a phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor, at different doses and durations in the management of ovarian survival in ischemia-reperfusion injury model in rats. Materials and Materials and Methods: Thirty female Wistar albino rats were divided into five groups. Ovarian ischemia was induced by clamping the adnex of uterine tuba for three hours and reperfused for one hour. Drug treatments were given as follows: Group 1: saline (ischemic control), Group 2: tadalafil 1 mg/kg, Group 3: tadalafil 10 mg/kg, Group 4: tadalafil 1 mg/kg for 7 days, Group 5: tadalafil 10 mg/kg for 7 days. At the end of the treatments, ovaries were removed and evaluated for histopathological analysis. Results: Group 4 and Group 5 showed significant decrease in vascular congesion, hemorrhage, edema, neutrophilic infiltration compared to Group 1. All groups showed significant decrease in neutrophilic infiltration compared to Group 1. We found that treatment with tadalafil for 7 days significantly decreased the ovarian tissue damage scores in rats compared to the ischemic control. Conclusion: Our results showed that tadalafil treatment in ischemic ovarian injury is effective in limiting ovarian damage. The reduction in the tissue damage scores suggested that treatment with PDE5 inhibitors, such as tadalafil, may contribute to the healing of conservatively treated ovaries and may play a role in the treatment of adnexal torsion.