Chemokine Mechanisms in Chronic Pelvic Pain

Chronic pelvic pain is the hallmark of patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS), a non-bacterial category of prostatitis that is a significant source of morbidity in American men. The cause of CPPS is unknown and there is a lack of convenient biomarkers for diagnosis of this syndrome. This project will examine the expression of biomarkers in expressed prostatic fluid from adult men with and without a diagnosis of CPPS. Thus our specific aim is to validate the use of the chemokines MCP-1 and MIP-1alpha and mast cell tryptase as biomarkers for CPPS in humans and correlate their levels with CPPS symptoms.