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Ethanol and Natural Killer Cells. II. Stimulation of Human Natural Killer Activity by Ethanol In Vitro
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Ethanol and Natural Killer Cells. II. Stimulation of Human Natural Killer Activity by Ethanol In Vitro

Feng Li, Robert T Cook, Carole Alber, Wendy Rasmussen, Jack T Stapleton and Zuhair K Ballas
Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, Vol.21(6), pp.981-987
Received for publication January 16, 1997; accepted May 2, 1997
09/1997
DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1997.tb04241.x
PMID: 9309305

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Abstract

A single ethanol ingestion of 1 g/kg by healthy individuals under controlled conditions does not inhibit and may stimulate fresh natural killer (NK) activity measured 16 hr later. However, ethanol inhibits fresh human NK activity when added to the lytic assay medium, as reported previously by other investigators. In contrast, using the same target (K562 erythroleukemia cells), peripheral blood mononu-clear cells cultured 3 days with 50 units/ml of interleukin-2 are no longer inhibited significantly by the same concentration of ethanol that inhibited the fresh cells by 80%. When freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells, monocyte-depleted lymphocytes, or partially purified NK cells are pre-exposed to ethanol in vitro for 1 to 7 days, washed, and assayed for lytic activity against K562, the lytic activity is increased compared with nonethanol-exposed cells incubated concurrently. This increase is not dependent on accessory cells, added cytokines, or cell growth, and seems to be an intrinsic response of the NK subset to ethanol exposure. The finding of NK stimulation by ethanol, considered together with the observation of NK cell loss in some chronic alcoholics, suggests that loss of NK activity in the chronic alcoholic may result from cell loss rather than direct ethanol inhibition of NK activity.
Natural Killer Cells Ethanol Natural Killer Cell Activity Alcoholism

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