Experimental Autoimmune Prostatitis Induces Learning-Memory Impairment and Structural Neuroplastic Changes in Mice.

Experimental Autoimmune Prostatitis Induces Learning-Memory Impairment and Structural Neuroplastic Changes in Mice. Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2019 Aug 10;: Authors: Du H, Chen X, Zhang L, Liu Y, Zhan C, Chen J, Wang H, Yu Z, Liang C Abstract Patients with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) commonly experience learning and memory decline and the underlying pathogenesis remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to study the effects of CP/CPPS on cognitive function by using a mouse model of experimental autoimmune prostatitis (EAP). Non-obese diabetic mice were immunized subcutaneously by prostate antigen and adjuvant twice and tested for cognitive performance by Morris water maze and novel object recognition test after the EAP induction. Then, dendritic complexity and spine densities were measured by using the Golgi-Cox procedure. Transmission electron microscopy was used to observe the synaptic morphology. In addition, activation of microglia and its association with synapses were also investigated by immunofluorescence staining. Our results showed that EAP induced a notable decrease in the learning and memory ability of mice, simultaneously causing a reduction in dendritic complexity detected by Sholl analysis. Likewise, the spine densities and synaptic proteins including synaptophysin and postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95) were significantly decreased in the EAP group. These observations were also accompanied ...
Source: Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology - Category: Cytology Authors: Tags: Cell Mol Neurobiol Source Type: research