Synergistic effect between catechin and ciprofloxacin on chronic bacterial prostatitis rat model.

Background: Chronic bacterial prostatitis (CBP) is the most common urological disease in adult men. Antibiotic therapy is the gold standard of treatment. However, long-term therapy resulted in many side-effects and bacterial resistance. Because of these reasons, we need new treatment modality that could replace traditional antibiotic therapy. Catechin, an extract of green tea, has antimicrobial effect against various bacteria and synergy effect to antibiotics. We evaluate the synergistic effects of catechin on the treatment of CBP in an animal model.

Methods: An experimental CBP model was induced in 70 male Wistar rats by instillation of 0.2 mL bacterial suspension (E-coli Z17, O2:K1:H-) containing 1 x 10(8) CFU/mL into the prostatic urethra. Microbiologically and histologically proven CBP model was demonstrated in 58.6% (41 of 70) of the rats after 4 weeks of bacterial instillation. The 41 rats demonstrating CBP were randomly divided into four groups; the control, catechin, ciprofloxacin and catechin with ciprofloxacin groups. All drug treatments were conducted over a period of 2 weeks. After treatment, the results were analyzed with microbiological cultures and histological findings of the prostate and urine samples to compare each group.

Results: Microbiological cultures and histological findings of the prostate and urine samples demonstrated reduced bacterial growth and improved inflammatory responses in all three experimental groups compared with the control group. The catechin group showed coherent trends of decrease in bacterial growth and improvements in prostatic inflammation compared with the control group, but not to a statistically significant degree (P > 0.05). However, the ciprofloxacin and catechin with ciprofloxacin groups showed statistically significant decreases in bacterial growth and improvements in prostatic inflammation compared with the control group (P < 0.05). The catechin with ciprofloxacin group showed a statistically significant decrease in bacterial growth and improvements in prostatic inflammation compared with the ciprofloxacin group (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: These results suggest that catechin may be an effective material in CBP treatment. Particularly, combination treatment of catechin and ciprofloxacin has synergistic effect. Therefore, we suggest that the combination of catechin and ciprofloxacin may be effective in treating CBP with a higher success rate.