Cytotoxic CD8 T lymphocytes are dispensable for Experimental Autoimmune Prostatitis development

SALAZAR, FLORENCIA C.; GODOY, GLORIA J.; SANCHEZ, LEONARDO R.; RIVERO, VIRGINIA E.; MOTRICH, RUBEN D.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; LXIV Reunión Anual de SAI, LXI Reunión Anual de la SAIC, XLVIII Reunión Anual de la SAFE, VII Reunión Anual de la NANOMEDAR, V Congreso Nacional de la AACyTAL.; 2016

Sociedad Argentina de Inmunologia

Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome (CPPS) is the most prevalent disease in the urologic clinic affecting young men. CPPS patients experience pelvic pain and prostate inflammation for at least 3 months in the absence of infection. The etiology of CPPS still remains unknown and autoimmunity has been proposed as a cause. Animal models of Experimental Autoimmune Prostatitis (EAP) have been largely used for the study of CPPS. They have revealed a major role of Th1 lymphocytes in the development of disease. Here, we analyzed the role of cytotoxic CD8 T lymphocytes and their contribution to the induction and development of EAP by studying the development of the prostate specific immune response and prostate tissue inflammation in CD8-KO and wild type (C57BL/6) mice immunized with prostate antigens (PA) or saline (C). Animals were immunized on days 0 and 15. Animals were euthanized on day 24 and the specific immune response, prostate histopathology and tissue infiltrating leukocytes were analyzed. Similarly elevated PA-specific immune responses, with important frequencies of specific IFNg+CD4+ and IL17+CD4+ T cells in prostate draining lymph nodes, were shown by either PA-immunized CD8-KO or wild type animals (p>0.05) when compared with control animals (p<0.05). These peripheral immune responses were accompanied by prostate histological lesions, characterized by hemorrhage, epithelial cell desquamation and marked periglandular mononuclear cell infiltration, in both PA-immunized CD8-KO and wild type animals. Infiltrates were mainly composed of CD4 T cells and macrophages. As expected, control animals did not develop prostate histological lesions.Our results demonstrate that cytotoxic CD8 T cells do not play a major role in EAP induction and pathogenesis. Moreover, our results corroborate the previous notion that, after PA immunization, a Th1 associated immune response develops and drives the induction of prostate tissue inflammation and chronic pelvic pain.