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The hemodynamics of penile flaccidity, erection and detumescence requires corporal smooth muscle to function across a wide variation in pO₂. The present study describes the effect of anoxia on corporal smooth muscle response to field stimulation and pharmacologic agonists and antagonists of erection.

The response of isolated strips of rabbit corpus cavernosal tissue to field stimulation, phenylephrine, bethanechol, ATP and KCL was determined under oxygenated and anoxic conditions. The results can be summarized as follows: 1) Anoxia eliminated spontaneous contractile activity and reduced basal tissue tension to a minimum. 2) Neither field stimulation nor pharmacological agents (ATP, bethanechol, isoproterenol) could relax basal tension below that induced by anoxia alone. 3)

Under anoxic conditions alpha-adrenergic agonists produced poorly sustained phasic contractile responses; anoxia eliminated …