Monocytes, Alcohol Use, and Altered Immunity

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The immunomodulatory capacity of acute, moderate alcohol consumption was investigated in this study in nonalcoholic volunteers after 2 ml of vodka/kg body weight of alcohol consumption. There was a significant, transient increase in interleukin‐12 and interferon‐γ (IFN γ) levels in whole blood samples collected 4 hr after alcohol consumption in response to an ex vivo bacterial challenge with lipopolysaccharide ( p < 0.02). However, decreased IFN γ levels were produced by mononuclear cells collected later after alcohol consumption (16 hr), suggesting that acute alcohol consumption has a biphasic effect on IFN γ inducibility. Furthermore, isolated blood monocytes collected 16 hr after alcohol consumption showed significantly decreased IL‐1β production in response to subsequent bacterial stimulation, implying that in vivo alcohol consumption affects monocyte‐derived inflammatory cytokine production. These results demonstrate that even acute, moderate alcohol consumption has a modulating capacity on immune functions that may contribute to decreased immunity and host defense.