Experimental Autoimmune Damage to Rat Male Accessory Glands. II. T Cell Requirement in Adoptive Transfer of Specific Tissue Damage

Abstract

Experimental autoimmune vesiculo-prostatitis (EAVP) was transferred within inbred Wistar rats by a relatively small number of spleen cells obtained 30 days after immunization of donors with MAG extract in CFA and injected in the internal jugular vein of recipients. Specific tissue alterations identical to those present in the glands of the donors were observed 7 days after the transfer of the cells. The main alteration present was infiltration of mononuclear cells in the interstitium accompanied by fibrosis in more severe cases and flattening of epithelium in the ventral and dorsal prostate, seminal vesicle, and occasionally in coagulating gland. Nine out of ten recipients developed sexual accessory glandular lesions of various degrees. No histological alterations were observed in the absence of cell-mediated immune response and extensive damage was only observed in rats expressing two or more positive assays. The separation of the transferred cells into enriched population of T and B cells has proved that T lymphocytes are required for the production of the tissue lesions. Depletion of T lymphocytes by nylon wool separation and anti-rat thymocytes serum and complement completely abrogate their capacity to transfer the glandular alterations. Furthermore, specific antibody precursor cells on their own seem to be incapable to promote the antibody synthesis and to initiate the glandular damage. We conclude that T lymphocytes are required for the adoptive transfer of specific tissue damage observed in autoimmune vesiculo-prostatitis as well as for the development of a cell-mediated immune response to MAG antigens. Whether the same or distinct T-cell subsets are involved in these two effects is discussed.

Tissue-specific expression of the human prostate-specific antigen gene in transgenic mice: Implications for tolerance and immunotherapy

“…Such clones of T cells thus would have escaped deletion in the thymus and would be capable of responding to PSA when presented in an immunogenic form. In addition, immune-mediated prostatitis can be induced in both rats and mice when they are immunized with syngeneic prostate homogenates in the presence of complete Freund's adjuvant, indicating that it is possible to mount a response to endogenous prostate antigens (30)(31)(32). Furthermore, patients with advanced prostate cancer, in which serum PSA levels were greatly increased, also exhibited antibodies to PSA (33).…”

Experimental rodent models of prostatitis: limitations and potential

“…85 High percentage (B70-80%) of male syngeneic recipients exhibited inflammation in the prostate; however, no humoral immune responses were detected in these recipients after cell transfer of MNC from donors with MAG-induced prostatitis. 86 Galmarini et al 87 used 3 months old male Wistar rats immunized with chemically modified MAG (MAG was coupled to diazonium derivates of arsenilic and sulphanilic acid which act as adjuvant) once, twice or three times on days 0, 30 and 45. Inoculation of MAG was necessary to confer higher titers of antibody.…”

The role of the prostatic stroma in chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome

“…Sheets, clusters, and sporadic nodules of lymphocytes and scattered plasma cells are detected within the fibromuscular stroma, with no apparent relationship to glands [9]. In patients with category IIIA prostatitis, mononuclear cell infiltrates were observed in the periglandular and stromal tissue in 40/50 biopsies, and the same inflammatory infiltrates were detected in histological sections of rat models of autoimmune prostatitis [10,11].…”