ETHANOL AND NATURAL KILLER ACTIVITY

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the different aspects of ethanol and natural killer activity. In a study described in the chapter, natural killer activity of human peripheral blood lymphocytes (HPBL) was studied in a 4 hr 51 Cr release assay using K562 target cells. HPBL preparations derived from a total of 15 normal healthy volunteers and 32 chronic alcoholics were examined for NK activity in 11 experiments. In each experiment, at least one control HPBL preparation was tested along with two to six HPBL preparations from alcoholics. Wide variations in the levels of NK activity were found in HPBL preparations from control and alcoholics, but upon statistical analysis of variance, levels of NK activity in PBL derived from alcoholics were significantly higher than the control levels. The difference in the cytotoxic activity of PBL from control and alcoholic subjects was not abolished as a result of depletion of macrophages, T cells, and B cells, and therefore the cytotoxic activity of PBL from normal and alcoholic subjects resided in the NK population. The NK inhibitory effect of ethanol could be confirmed in the mouse system. Short-term preincubation of mouse spleen cells with ethanol had no effect on their subsequent NK activity.