Fig. 6: Pathological features of endothelial injury in ED CC.

a Scanning electron microscope image of normal and ED cavernosal trabecular endothelium. The scale bar represents 5 µm. b Immunofluorescence co-staining of VWF (red) and γH2AX (green) in CC paraffin sections. The statistical analysis of relative fluorescence intensity per EC nucleus (n = 30 cells in 5 different regions of each group) was made by ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test; two-tailed; the confidence interval is 95%. The scale bar represents 20 µm. c Violin plot combined with box plot showing the expression level in each EC subcluster. The statistical analysis was made by Wilcoxon (Mann–Whitney) rank-sum test; two-tailed; the confidence interval is 95%. d Bubble diagram of the top activated and inhibited IPA pathways based on the DEGs of ED EC compared with normal EC. Statistical analysis was based on Fisher’s exact test; two-tailed; the confidence interval is 95%. e Transmission electron microscope image of normal and ED cavernosal trabecular endothelium. The bottom panel shows the statistical analysis of the short diameter per mitochondrion (n = 30 mitochondria), mitochondria count per EC (n = 10 cells), and relative intensity per mitochondrion (n = 30 mitochondria) made by ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test; two-tailed; the confidence interval is 95%. The scale bar represents 200 nm. f Violin plot combined with box plot showing the expression level of the genes that are associated with energy metabolism. Statistical analysis between the normal EC and the other two groups was made by two-tailed Wilcoxon rank-sum test in R. g Immunofluorescence staining of YAP (red) in CC paraffin sections. The statistical analysis of relative fluorescence intensity per EC nucleus in normal and ED CC was made by ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test based on 30 ECs in 5 different fields; two-tailed; the confidence interval is 95%. The scale bar represents 20 µm. h Immunofluorescence co-staining of CD31 (red) and VWF (green) in cavernosal trabecular ECs treated with TGF-β, Peptide 17, and/or XMU-MP-1. The scale bar represents 10 µm.