Alcohol promoted prostate microbial imbalance in the rat model of prostatitis.

Objective: Alcohol may aggravate the clinical symptoms of chronic prostatitis (CP)/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS), but the molecular mechanism behind this connection have not been fully understood. In our study, we established a rat model of experimental autoimmune prostatitis (EAP) to investigate the impact of alcohol exposure on the changes in prostatic microbiota.

Methods: The EAP rat model was established using prostate steroid-binding protein with subsequently administered alcohol exposure. The concentration of alcohol was quantified by a standard alcohol concentration assay. The inflammatory factors were measured through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Subsequently, the composition and diversity of the prostate microbiota were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing data.

Results: Elevated levels of inflammatory factors and morphological characteristics of prostate tissue confirmed that the EAP rat model was successfully established. Following alcohol exposure, a significant increase in blood alcohol concentration was observed. Alcohol exposure further exacerbated dysbiosis in prostate microbiota, altering microbial abundance, evenness, and composition in EAP rats. More than 50 metabolic pathways related to biosynthesis, degradation/utilization/assimilation, detoxification, generation of prostate metabolite and energy, macromolecule modification, glycan pathways and metabolic clusters were predicted to be disrupted. Additionally, metabolomics profiling revealed that alcohol impaired pathways such as PWY-6876, PWY-6339, PWY-722, and PWY-5177, which were strongly associated with microbial changes, including Streptomyces, Oscillospira, Pseudomonas, Lactobacillus, unidentified-Clostridiales, and unclassified-Bacteria.

Conclusion: Our findings suggested that alcohol exacerbates prostatitis by disrupting the balance of prostate microbiota. This finding could provide valuable insights for improving the diagnosis and treatment for patients with alcoholic prostatitis.