The mediation of interleukin-17 and chemokine ligand 2 in pelvic pain of experimental autoimmune prostatitis

The present study aimed to determine the expression and mediation of interleukin-17 (IL-17) and chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) in a rat model with experimental autoimmune prostatitis (EAP). A total of 44 Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were used in the present study. Of these, a total of 20 two-month-old SD rats were randomly divided into a normal control (n=10) and a model group (EAP group, n=10). The remaining 24 two-month old SD rats were treated in the same way as EAP rats and subsequently randomly divided into a tacrolimus group (n=8), a celecoxib group (n=8) and a normal saline (NS) control group (n=8). Rats in the EAP and normal control groups underwent the Von Frey filaments behavioral test; rats in the tacrolimus, celecoxib and normal saline groups received a pain test following intervention treatment. Prostate tissues of SD rats in each group were harvested for reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and western blot analysis to observe the expression of IL-17 and CCL2. In the pain-reaction test, the occurrence of abnormal pain in the EAP group was significantly higher compared with the control group (P<0.001). The celecoxib group experienced a significant decrease in pain at day 10 compared with the NS group (P<0.01), while the decrease in pain experienced by the tacrolimus group was only significant at day 30 (P<0.001) and the pain experienced by the NS group decreased slightly over this same period. Results of RT-qPCR and western blot analysis indicated that, compared with the control group, the expression of IL-17 and CCL2 in the prostate tissue of EAP rats was significantly upregulated 50 days following modeling (P<0.05). On day 30 following intervention, the expression of IL-17 and CCL2 in the prostate of rats in the tacrolimus and celecoxib groups was significantly downregulated compared with the NS group (P<0.05). Therefore, the results of the current study demonstrate that IL-17 and CCL2 serve a vital role in the morbidity of the experimental autoimmune prostatitis and may also have a mediation effect on pelvic pain associated with chronic prostatitis.