Effect of chronic ethanol feeding on 24-hour rhythms of mitogenic responses and lymphocyte subset populations in thymus and spleen of peripubertal male rats.
This work analyzes the effect of chronic ethanol feeding on the 24-hour variation of mitogenic responses and lymphocyte subset populations in thymus and spleen. Animals were maintained under a 12:12-hour light/dark photoperiod and they received a liquid diet for 4 weeks, starting on day 35 of life. The ethanol-fed group received a similar diet to controls except that maltose was isocalorically replaced by ethanol. Ethanol replacement provided 36% of the total caloric content of the diet. Rats were killed at 6 time intervals around the clock, beginning at Zeitgeber time (ZT) 1 (ZT 0 = lights on). Under ethanol intake the splenic and thymic weight decreased. In addition, mean values of the thymic, but not of the splenic T cell number decreased, and mean values of the thymic and splenic CD8+ and CD4+CD8+ number increased. Consequently, the thymic T/B ratio and the thymic and splenic CD4+/CD8+ ratio decreased in ethanol-fed rats. At the same time there was a significant increase in the response of the thymic cells to LPS. The ethanol diet modified the 24-hour rhythmicity of thymic and splenic T, B and CD4+CD8+ cells, thymic CD4+ and splenic CD8+ cells, thymic and splenic T/B and CD4+/CD8+ ratios, as well as of mitogenic responses in both tissues. Chronic ethanol administration presumably affects the endogenous clock that modulates the circadian variation of immune responsiveness in growing rats.
Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular III, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain.
Vanessa
V
Jiménez
Daniel P
DP
Cardinali
María P
MP
Alvarez
María P
MP
Fernández
Verónica
V
Boggio
Ana I
AI
Esquifino
D000818:Animals; D016175:B-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects*; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology
D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol