| COMPARISON OF PROINFLAMMATORY
CYTOKINE LEVELS IN SEMEN AND URINE IN MEN WITH CHRONIC PROSTATITIS,
NON-SPECIFIC PROSTATITIS AND HEALTHY CONTROLS.
Dr Abbas Khadra St. George's Hospital Medical School, London |
Non-bacterial prostatitis is a miserable condition for the sufferer to live with; unremitting pelvic pain, that is difficult to treat. Cytokines are protein-based mediators of inflammation. This research looked at whether or not a range of cytokines were detectable in the semen of men with chronic prostatitis and whether, or not, the level correlated with the severity of disease.
Interleukin-8 (IL-8), a cytokine, is elevated in non-specific urethritis. It is also elevated in prostatitis, but not statistically significantly so when compared to controls. In spite of this failure to show statistical significance in the levels, the researchers suggest that the levels they found do support a role for IL-8 in the pathophysiology of prostatitis.
This raises the prospect of novel diagnostic methods based on IL-8 being developed for this awkward condition.
This project is continued in project 2002/12 where later information
can be found.
Research summarised by Prostate Research Campaign
UK. 01 October 2002.
Project G2001/03.