Pathogenesis of Chronic Bacterial Prostatitis in an Animal Model

Abstract

A reproducible rat model of chronic bacterial prostatitis was developed using a defined bacterial pathogen (Escherichia coli) to study the pathogenesis and persistence of chronic bacterial prostatitis. The progression of inflammation and its consequences from acute to chronic prostatitis were documented with microbiological, histological, ultrastructural and immunological data. Chronic bacterial prostatitis in this model was associated with sparse glycocalix-enclosed protected bacterial microcolonies within the prostatic acini and ducts which appeared to stimulate a persistent local and systemic immunological reaction resulting in chronic inflammation of the gland. This model has many striking similarities to the natural history of human chronic bacterial prostatitis.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa las and rhl quorum-sensing systems are important for infection and inflammation in a rat prostatitis model

“…aeruginosa in the prostate; to our knowledge, this is the first report of its kind. In this study, we employed our previously established bacterial prostatitis model (Ceri et al, 1999b;Nickel et al, 1990;Phan et al, 2008;Rippere-Lampe et al, 2001) to study Ps. aeruginosa infections.…”

“…The rat model of prostatitis described previously (Ceri et al, 1999a, b;Lang et al, 2000;Nickel et al, 1990;Phan et al, 2008) was employed in this study. In brief, male Sprague-Dawley rats of approximately 300 g were obtained from the Life and Environmental Sciences Animal Resource Centre at the University of Calgary.…”

“…aeruginosa strains WT PA14 (data not shown), WT PAO1 (PAO1) and an isogenic quorum-sensing lasI rhlI double mutant (PAO-JP2) were used to establish acute and chronic infections in the rat prostate. Infections were defined as acute at 2 days and chronic after 8 days infection based on morphological paradigms of acute and chronic prostatitis in man (Ceri et al, 1999a), which are recapitulated in the rat model of prostatitis at these time points (Ceri et al, 1999b;Lang et al, 2000;Nickel et al, 1990;Phan et al, 2008;Rippere-Lampe et al, 2001). In accordance with a previous study (Phan et al, 2008), a 12 day chronic time point was added to look for the possibility of healing in cases where the loss of virulence factors resulted in a reduced potential to move on to a chronic infection.…”

“…While 5-10 % of prostatitis cases are believed to have a bacterial origin, some accumulating evidence suggests that this may represent a gross underestimation (Nickel & Moon, 2005;Nickel, 2006). To better understand the initiating factors of prostatitis, our lab has employed models of bacterial and non-bacterial prostatitis in rats (Ceri et al, 1999b;Lang et al, 2000;Nickel et al, 1990). Using the bacterial prostatitis model, we determined that prostate disease is affected by the virulence factors of Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis, which are the major bacterial contributors to prostatitis (Phan et al, 2008;Rippere-Lampe et al, 2001).…”

“…aeruginosa-induced prostatitis. In a test of this hypothesis, we used our previously established bacterial prostatitis model (Ceri et al, 1999b;Nickel et al, 1990) to induce both acute and chronic infections in the rat prostate with wild-type (WT) Ps. aeruginosa strains PAO1 and PA14.…”