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Flow Cytometric Analysis of Lymphocyte Subsets of Mice Maintained on an Ethanol‐Containing Liquid Diet
Author(s) -
Hsiung Linda,
Wang Joseph,
Waltenbaugh Carl
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1994.tb00874.x
Subject(s) - immune system , spleen , liquid diet , cd8 , ethanol , medicine , endocrinology , biology , calorie , t lymphocyte , lymphocyte , antibody , t cell , cd3 , antigen , chemistry , immunology , biochemistry
Alcoholic patients often have impaired immune function, yet little is known about the precise mechanism(s) of this impairment. We have previously shown that ethanol consumption by mice alters copolymer‐specific humoral and cellular immune responses. In this study, we asked whether alcohol consumption by mice would phenotypically alter lymphocyte populations. Female C57BL/6 mice were fed a nutritionally complete liquid diet containing 35% ethanol‐derived calories for up to 8 days. As controls, mice either were fed a liquid control diet that isocalorically substitutes sucrose for ethanol or remained on a standard solid diet and water ad libitum. Although mice fed ethanol‐containing liquid or pair‐fed control liquid diets have decreased numbers of spleen cells compared with solid diet controls, only the ethanol‐containing diet allowed normally nonresponder C57BL/6 spleen cells to make antibody responses to the poly(Glu 50 Tyr 50 ) synthetic copolymer antigen. Flow cytometric analysis of splenic lymphocyte populations of mice on the ethanol‐containing diet shows an increase in the relative proportion of T‐lymphocytes as compared with mice on either solid or liquid control diets. No such change is seen for either B‐cell or natural killer cell populations in these same mice. Both liquid control and liquid ethanol diets caused a slight decrease in the CD4:CD8 ratios of splenic T‐lymphocytes. We see the relative percentage of T‐cells bearing the αβ ‐cell receptor (TcR) increases in the spleens of liquid ethanol diet mice; a smaller increase TcR αβ usage is seen in the spleens of liquid control mice, compared with solid diet mice. Flow cytometric analysis shows that little, if any, difference exists in TcR γδ expression between the liquid ethanol and either the liquid control or solid diet groups. Preliminary analysis of TcR αβ subsets suggest that ethanol increases the percentage of T‐cells expressing V β 5 and V β 8, and decreases the percentage of V β 11 expressing cells. These findings suggest that, in addition to modifying the immune response, ethanol alters the phenotypic expression of lymphocyte subsets.