The Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Level in Platelet-Rich Plasma Might Be Associated with Treatment Outcome in Patients with Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome or Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection

Using platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections to treat urological diseases has attracted great attention. This study investigated the impact of cytokine concentrations in PRP on the treatment outcome of patients with recurrent urinary tract infection (rUTI) and interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS). Forty patients with IC/BPS and twenty-one patients with rUTI were enrolled for four-monthly repeated PRP injections. PRP was collected at the first injection and analyzed with multiplex immunoassays for 12 target cytokines. In patients with IC/BPS, a Global Response Assessment (GRA) score ≥ 2 was defined as a successful outcome. In rUTI patients, ≤2 episodes of UTI recurrence during one year of follow-up was considered a successful outcome. Nineteen (47.5%) patients with IC/BPS and eleven (52.4%) patients with rUTI had successful outcomes. The IC/BPS patients with successful outcomes had significantly lower levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in their PRP than those with unsuccessful outcomes (p = 0.041). The rUTI patients with successful outcomes also had a lower level of TNF-α (p = 0.025) and a higher level of epidermal growth factor (p = 0.035) and transforming growth factor-β2 (p = 0.024) in PRP than those with unsuccessful outcomes. A lower level of TNF-α in PRP might be a potentially predictive factor of treatment outcome.