Flow cytometric analysis of lymphocytes from rats following chronic ethanol treatment
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Gary Wheeler; Reza Hakkak; Thomas M. Badger; Ricki M. Helm; A. Wesley Burks
- Source
- Alcohol. 13:467-471
- Subject
- Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Health (social science)
Calorie
Lymphocyte
CD4-CD8 Ratio
Spleen
Thymus Gland
Biology
Toxicology
Biochemistry
Reference Daily Intake
Flow cytometry
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Behavioral Neuroscience
Immune system
Internal medicine
medicine
Animals
Lymphocyte Count
Lymphocytes
Ethanol
medicine.diagnostic_test
Central Nervous System Depressants
Organ Size
General Medicine
T lymphocyte
Flow Cytometry
Diet
Rats
medicine.anatomical_structure
Endocrinology
Parenteral nutrition
Neurology
Antigens, Surface
- Language
- ISSN
- 0741-8329
The current investigation focused on lymphoid cell populations of adult male Sprague-Dawley rats fed a total enteral nutrition diet in which ethanol provided 38% of the total calories. Rats received the National Research Council (NRC) recommended daily intake of nutrients 35 days. An evaluation of lymphocyte populations from peripheral blood demonstrated a decrease in the absolute number of B cells ( p ≤ 0.007) and absolute numbers of CD4 T cells ( p ≤ 0.06) in the ethanol-treated animals. Spleen and thymus weights were significantly reduced ( p = 0.0001) in the ethanol-treated rats and the CD4CD8) ratio of splenic lymphocytes decreased in the ethanol group ( p ≤ 0.03). Thymus T-cell recovery from the ethanol-treated group was significantly reduced with no apparent redistribution in subset numbers with the exception of a minor, yet significant, decrease ( p ≤ 0.05) in the CD4CD8 ratio. These data are the first to demonstrate that chronic alcohol intake alters lymphoid cell populations in the peripheral blood and primary organs of the immune systems in the presence of adequate nutrition.