Microbiome of Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome

This research is being done to learn more about the bacteria that live in the genito-urinary tract in subjects with urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome (UCPPS). A microbiome is defined as "the ecological community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms that literally share our body space." (Lederberg, 2001) The present study is designed to establish the prostate, urinary bladder and urethral microbiome in men with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome or the urinary bladder and urethral microbiome in women with interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome. The human urethra, bladder and prostate normally harbor microbial communities. The recent advent of large-scale "omics" technologies allows a detailed analysis of those communities. While current knowledge of the normal inhabitants of the human urogenital tract remains incomplete, more than 90% of patients with UCPPS report the onset of symptoms following a "urinary tract infection". The causative agents in most of those cases remain unknown, partly due to the limitations of older detection technologies that require the detection and isolation of a single microorganism for implicating it as a causative agent. Furthermore, many microbial species remain unculturable and therefore, are often undetectable using standard technology. The current project will utilize state-of-the-art "omic" technology to detect and identify microbial species in the urethra and bladder of both men and women and the prostate of men. Additionally, the inflammatory response that accompanies those microbial communities will be characterized. Finally, the presence and number of microbial species will be correlated with the intensity of the inflammatory response and the severity of symptoms that patients with UCPPS experience.