Is chronic prostatitis an autoimmune disease?
Patients with “nonbacterial chronic prostatitis” have increased levels of white blood cells in their prostate fluid but do not have bacteria cultured from that fluid. The 2 possibilities are therefore that the white cells are responding to a microbial infection that cannot be cultured or that there is a non-infectious cause for the inflammation. One such possibility would be an autoimmune disease. In autoimmune diseases, the bodies own white cells respond to a “self” antigen as though it were a “non-self” pathogen and attack it as though it were a foreign invader. Diseases with a proven autoimmune basis include some forms of arthritis, diabetes mellitus and multiple sclerosis. These disorders may respond to treatment with anti-inflammatory or even anti-transplant rejection medications. There are 2 lines of evidence to suggest that chronic prostatitis may be an autoimmune disease: animal models and preliminary human studies.
