OBJECTIVES

To explore the clinical significance of interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-10 (IL-10), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) in expressed prostatic secretions (EPS) of patients with different types of chronic prostatitis (CP).

METHODS

Fifty-seven CP patients and 12 healthy males (controls) were investigated. The CP patients were evaluated through routine examination of urine, EPS, 2 glasses urine culture, and the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI) score and classified by the NIH prostatitis diagnostic criteria. The levels of cytokines TNF-alpha, IL-10, and IL-2 in the EPS were measured by two-antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

RESULTS

CP patients fell into 3 groups: type II (n = 10), type IIIa (n = 26), and type IIIb (n = 21). EPS TNF-alpha and IL-10 levels were significantly higher in type II and type IIIa than in type IIIb and control groups. The levels of IL-2 were lower than control in all CP groups, but only type II was statistically different from the controls. In the CP patients, the level of TNF-alpha was positively related to the white blood cell counts (r = .77; P <.01), and the level of IL-10 was positively related to the NIH-CPSI scores (r = .55; P <.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Determination of variety expression of TNF-alpha, IL-10, and IL-2 in the EPS of CP patients may provide a potential indicator for clinical diagnosis classification and an indicator to evaluate the effect of treatment of CP.