Pathogenic Consequences in Semen Quality of an Autoimmune Response against the Prostate Gland: From Animal Models to Human Disease.

MOTRICH RD; MACCIONI M; PONCE AA; GATTI GA; MACKERN OBERTI JP; RIVERO VE

JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY

The American Association of Immunologists

Lugar: Bethesda; Año: 2006 vol. 177 p. 957 - 957

0022-1767

p class="abstract">We have recently proposed an autoimmune etiology in approximately 35% of chronic nonbacterial prostatitis patients, the most frequent form of prostatitis observed, because they exhibit IFN-gamma-secreting lymphocytes specific to prostate Ags. Interestingly, this particular group of patients, but not the rest of chronic nonbacterial prostatitis patients, also presented striking abnormalities in their semen quality.In this work, we use an experimental animal model of autoimmune prostatitis on Wistar rats developed in our laboratory to investigate when, where, and how sperm cells from autoimmune prostatitis individuals are being damaged. As in patients, a marked reduction in sperm concentration, almost null sperm motility and viability, and an increased percentage of apoptotic spermatozoa were detected in samples from animals with the disease. Prostate-specific autoantibodies as well as elevated levels of NO, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma were also detected in their seminal