Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.
School of Dentistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
Prostate. 2019 Oct;79(14):1622-1628. doi: 10.1002/pros.23886. Epub 2019 Aug 2.
The protist Trichomonas vaginalis causes a common, sexually transmitted infection and has been proposed to contribute to the development of chronic prostate conditions, including benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer. However, few studies have investigated the extent to which it involves the prostate in the current antimicrobial era. We addressed this question by investigating the relation between T. vaginalis antibody serostatus and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration, a marker of prostate infection, inflammation, and/or cell damage, in young, male, US military members.
We measured T. vaginalis serum IgG antibodies and serum total PSA concentration in a random sample of 732 young, male US active duty military members. Associations between T. vaginalis serostatus and PSA were investigated by linear regression.
Of the 732 participants, 341 (46.6%) had a low T. vaginalis seropositive score and 198 (27.0%) had a high score, with the remainder seronegative. No significant differences were observed in the distribution of PSA by T. vaginalis serostatus. However, slightly greater, nonsignificant differences were observed when men with high T. vaginalis seropositive scores were compared with seronegative men, and when higher PSA concentrations were examined (≥0.70 ng/mL). Specifically, 42.5% of men with high seropositive scores had a PSA concentration greater than or equal to 0.70 ng/mL compared with 33.2% of seronegative men (adjusted P = .125).
Overall, our findings do not provide strong support for prostate involvement during T. vaginalis infection, although our suggestive positive findings for higher PSA concentrations do not rule out this possibility entirely. These suggestive findings may be relevant for prostate condition development because higher early- to mid-life PSA concentrations have been found to predict greater prostate cancer risk later in life.
原生动物阴道毛滴虫引起常见的性传播感染，并被认为有助于慢性前列腺疾病的发展，包括良性前列腺增生和前列腺癌。然而，很少有研究调查在当前的抗菌时代它对前列腺的参与程度。我们通过调查年轻男性美国现役军人中阴道毛滴虫抗体血清阳性状态与前列腺特异性抗原（PSA）浓度之间的关系来解决这个问题，PSA 是前列腺感染、炎症和/或细胞损伤的标志物。
我们测量了 732 名年轻男性美国现役军人的阴道毛滴虫血清 IgG 抗体和血清总 PSA 浓度。通过线性回归研究阴道毛滴虫血清阳性状态与 PSA 之间的关系。
在 732 名参与者中，341 名（46.6%）的阴道毛滴虫血清阳性评分较低，198 名（27.0%）的评分较高，其余为阴性。阴道毛滴虫血清阳性状态的 PSA 分布无显著差异。然而，当比较高阴道毛滴虫血清阳性评分的男性与阴性男性，以及当检查更高的 PSA 浓度（≥0.70ng/mL）时，观察到略有但无统计学意义的差异。具体而言，42.5%的高血清阳性评分男性的 PSA 浓度大于或等于 0.70ng/mL，而阴性男性为 33.2%（调整后的 P=0.125）。
总的来说，我们的发现并没有为阴道毛滴虫感染期间前列腺受累提供有力支持，尽管我们对较高 PSA 浓度的提示性阳性发现并没有完全排除这种可能性。这些提示性发现可能与前列腺疾病的发展有关，因为早期到中期的 PSA 浓度较高已被发现可预测日后更大的前列腺癌风险。
