An aberrant prostate antigen–specific immune response causes prostatitis in mice and is associated with chronic prostatitis in humans
Yafei Hou, … , Mark S. Anderson, Lawrence Fong
Yafei Hou, … , Mark S. Anderson, Lawrence Fong
Published June 1, 2009
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2009;119(7):2031-2041. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI38332.
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Research Article Immunology

An aberrant prostate antigen–specific immune response causes prostatitis in mice and is associated with chronic prostatitis in humans

Abstract

Chronic prostatitis is a common disease of unclear etiology and has no specific treatment. Mice deficient in the expression of the autoimmune regulator (Aire) gene, which are defective in thymic expression of self antigens and central tolerance, develop spontaneous prostatitis. In this study, we found that Aire-deficient mice developed spontaneous B and T cell immune responses to a prostate autoantigen, seminal vesicle secretory protein 2 (SVS2), which we believe to be novel. We show that thymic expression of this self antigen was Aire dependent. Moreover, prostatitis was induced in WT mice through immunization with SVS2, demonstrating that immunity to SVS2 was sufficient to induce prostatitis. The clinical relevance of this antigen was highlighted by our observation that patients with chronic prostatitis possessed specific autoantibodies against the human SVS2-like seminal vesicle protein semenogelin. These results provide direct evidence that spontaneous chronic prostatitis is an autoimmune disease and is regulated by both central and peripheral tolerance. Moreover, SVS2 and semenogelin are among the relevant autoantigens in mice and humans, respectively.

Authors

Yafei Hou, Jason DeVoss, Vinh Dao, Serena Kwek, Jeffrey P. Simko, Douglas G. McNeel, Mark S. Anderson, Lawrence Fong

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Figure 8

CPPS patients possess autoimmune response to human Sg.

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CPPS patients possess autoimmune response to human Sg. (A) Immunoblottin...
(A) Immunoblotting of purified Sg was performed with the sera from CPPS patients and age-matched male blood donors. Each lane of the multiscreen immunoblot represents sera from an individual sample. Shown are 15 representative sera from each group. The 52- and 71-kDa bands denote Sg1 and Sg2, respectively. Rabbit anti-human Sg (anti-hSg) and human nonspecific IgG (hIgG) were used as positive and negative controls, respectively. (B) Immunoblots of recombinant MBP-Sg1, MBP-Sg1, and Sg purified from semen plasma were used to detect IgG antibodies within sera from a patient with CPPS and an age-matched normal male donor. Polyclonal rabbit anti-human Sg Ab was used as positive control. MBP and BSA denote irrelevant protein controls.