A Study On The Effects Of The Levels Of Cytokines On Male Infertility In Patients With Chronic Prostatitis

Objective This study was designed to evaluate the levels of cytokine IL-2,IL-6 and TNF-αin prostatic secretions(EPS),serum and seminal plasma of male infertile patients with chronic prostatitis, and analyze the relationship of these cytokines with the production of antisperm antibody(AsAb) and the semen parameters,and discuss the significance of the determination of the level of cytokines in the diagnosis and treatment of male infertility.Methods Sixty male infertile patients with chronic prostatitis and 20 healthy males with normal fertility as control were included in this study.An Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay(ELISA) was employed to measure the levels of IL-2,IL-6 and TNF-αin the EPS, serum and seminal plasma,and the AsAbs in serum.An immunobead test(IBT) was used to detect AsAb in seminal plasma.Routine semen analysis and EPS examination were carried out.The results were recorded and statistically analyzed.Results The levels of IL-2,IL-6 and TNF-αin EPS,seminal plasma in male infertile patients with chronic prostatitis were significantly higher than those in control group(P＜0.001).The cytokine levels in EPS were correlated directly with those in seminal plasma or serum.The levels of TNF-αin EPS was higher correlated with those in seminal plasma(r＝0.726,P＜0.01).The positive rate of AsAb in infertile patients with chronic prostatitis was significantly higher than those in control group(P＜0.05).Among the male infertile patients with chronic prostatitis,sperm survivability and a+b grade vitality sperm of AsAb positive group were lower than that of AsAb negative group(P＜0.05).In seminal plasma,the levels of TNF-αin AsAb postitive patients was higher than those in AsAb negative patients(p＜0.05).The contents of TNF-αin seminal plasma were positively correlated with the positive rate of serum AsAb(r＝0.312, P＜0.05).Conclusions(1) In patients with chronic prostatitis,the inflammatory cytokines in seminal plasma mainly came from EPS;(2) The three elevated cytokines levels in EPS and seminal plasma might be related to the production of AsAb in serum and seminal plasma;(3) The increased cytokines contents could affect the quality of sperm, suggesting that it be one of the main causes of male infertility among patients with chronic prostatitis;(4) The levels of IL-6 and TNF-αcan serve as valuable markers for the diagnosis and treatment of male infertility patients with chronic prostatitis.