Extensive work has been done regarding the development and characterization of experimental autoimmune prostatitis (EAP) in rodent models that could be considered valuable an appropriate model for the human disease named Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome.
In the present work we analyze the role of INF-ã, IL-10 and IL-17 producing cells in development of autoimmune prostatitis. Prostate extract plus adjuvant was used to immunize Balb/c, NOD and NOD INFã deficient (NOD-INFã-/-) mice. Control groups, immunized only with the adjuvant were also included in this study. Mice were sacrificed at day 24 after immunization and the presence of antigen specific INF-ã, IL-10 and IL-17 producing cells was evaluated by ELISA and FACS. Infiltration of the prostate gland was also studied by conventional histology and FACS. No antigen specific INF-ã, IL-10 and IL-17 producing cells were observed in lymph nodes and spleen of control mice of the 3 strains evaluated. A high specific secretion of IL-17 was observed in culture supernatants from Balb/c, NOD and NOD-INFã-/- mice. Specific IL--10 secretion was mainly observed in culture supernatants from Balb/c and NOD-INFã-/- mice. A significant elevated secretion of specific INF-ã was observed in culture supernatants of NOD mice. When histological infiltration was analyzed the higher severity scores were observed in NOD prostate glands while a minor infiltration was detected in prostate glands from Balb/c and NOD-INFã-/-. Prostate gland cells infiltrating NOD mice was composed mostly by CD3 cells with high proportion of CD8 and CD4 cells.
These results indicate that the presence of specific INF-ã producing cells is highly associated with marked infiltration of the prostate gland. Interesting, although IL-17 production by Th17 cells is antigen specific and it is detected in all strains, it is not sufficient to induce lesions in the prostate.
