[Swimming plus medication reduces the expressions of cytokines in rats with chronic abacterial prostatitis].

OBJECTIVE

To observe the effects of swimming plus medication on the expressions of cytokines in rats with chronic abacterial prostatitis (CAP).

METHODS

Forty healthy adult male SD rats were randomly divided into five groups of equal number, normal control, CAP model control, medication, exercise therapy, and exercise + medication. The CAP model was made by Xiaozhiling injection, and at 7 days after modeling, the rats in the medication and exercise + medication groups were treated intragastrically with Qianlie Shutong Capsules (0.016 g/ml) at 20 ml per kg of the body weight qd, those in the exercise therapy and exercise + medication groups were made swim at a regular time once a day, 35 minutes on the first day and 5 minutes more on the second until 50 minutes once, for 4 successive weeks, and those in the normal control, model control and exercise therapy groups received normal saline only. After 14 and 28 days of treatment, all the rats were killed and their prostates harvested for observation of histopathological changes and determination of the expressions of TNF- α, IL-1β and IL-6 in the prostatic tissue homogenate by ELISA.

RESULTS

After 14 days of treatment, the expression levels of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 were significantly elevated in the groups of CAP model control (［183.08±8.07］ pg/ml, ［57.55±3.53］ pg/ml and ［256.15±13.95］ ng/L), medication (［118.49±8.06］ pg/ml, ［42.64±4.64 ］ pg/ml and ［200.74±9.33］ ng/L), exercise therapy (［169.63±10.64］ pg/ml, ［50.45±5.71］ pg/ml and ［245.23±6.49］ ng/L), and exercise + medication (［107.82±7.81］ pg/ml, ［40.35±6.93］ pg/ml and ［187.04±10.85］ ng/L) as compared with those in the normal control (［20.36±1.82］ pg/ml, ［14.64±1.91］ pg/ml and ［70.58±2.09］ ng/L) (P<0.05). At 28 days, the levels of TNF- α, IL-1β, IL-6 were remarkably lower in the exercise + medication group (［29.30±3.78］ pg/ml, ［16.91±1.24］ pg/ml and ［ 88.65±6.74］ ng/L) than in the medication group (［39.67±3.19］ pg/ml, ［26.27±3.49］ pg/ml and ［110.26±6.33］ ng/L) (P<0.05) and close to those of the normal control group (［19.34±1.76］ pg/ml, ［13.68±1.06］ pg/ml and ［71.34±2.50］ ng/L). During the treatment, no obvious pathological changes were found in the prostate tissue of the normal control rats, while significant chronic prostatic inflammation was observed in the CAP models, and the inflammation was relieved in different degrees after intervention, most significantly in the exercise + medication group.

CONCLUSIONS

Swimming can relieve prostatic inflammation and swimming plus medication can effectively reduce the expressions of cytokines and alleviate histological damage in the prostatic tissue of CAP rats.