title: Drinking modulates monocyte migration in healthy subjects: a randomised intervention study of water, ethanol, red wine and beer with or without alcohol.
abstract: Moderate alcohol consumption is associated with reduced cardiovascular mortality compared to non-consumption of alcohol and heavy drinking. Experimental data suggest a direct effect of alcohol on atherosclerotic lesion development. We assessed the effect of consumption of moderate amounts of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages on monocyte migration, a crucial step in atherogenesis. Forty-nine healthy men and women (aged 22-56 years) were enrolled in this randomised controlled trial. After wash-out, participants were assigned to either ethanol (concentration 12.5%), beer (5.6%) or red wine (12.5%) equivalent to 30 grams of ethanol per day (g/d) for men and 20 g/d for women, or to the same amount of de-alcoholised beer or red wine, or to water. Monocyte migration was evaluated ex vivo using a modified Boyden chamber. Intake of ethanol or de-alcoholised red wine significantly reduced monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1)-induced monocyte migration by 58% (p<0.05; n=6) and 36% (p<0.05; n=7) and FMLP (N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine)-induced migration by 41% (p<0.05) and 36% (p<0.05), respectively. MCP-1 receptor expression was not affected by these interventions, as shown by flow cytometry. Short-term intervention with moderate amounts of ethanol and de-alcoholised red wine inhibits monocyte migration ex vivo. This might represent one mechanism by which alcoholic beverages lower cardiovascular risk.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine II, Cardiology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Medical Centre, Robert-Koch-Strasse 8, D-89081 Ulm, Germany. armin.imhof@uni-ulm.de
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Imhof
authors.forename: Roza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Blagieva
authors.forename: Nikolaus
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Marx
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Koenig
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000276:immunology*; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000276:immunology*; D001515:Beer; D018932:Chemokine CCL2 / Q000378:metabolism; D002634:Chemotaxis, Leukocyte / Q000187:drug effects*; D019040:E-Selectin / Q000378:metabolism; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018799:Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009000:Monocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D014867:Water / Q000494:pharmacology; D014920:Wine
chemical_list: D018932:Chemokine CCL2; D019040:E-Selectin; D014867:Water; D018799:Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1; D000431:Ethanol