NCT02568904

Alcohol and Innate Immunity

The Effects of Binge Drinking on Innate Host Defence Mechanisms

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 46 (actual)
• Sponsor: Medical University of Graz · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 99 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Alcohol leads to a leaky gut and translocation of bacterial products. This may lead to inflammation and immune dysfunction as well as the typical hangover symptoms.

Detailed description

Alcohol binge drinking, defined as 5 or more drinks for men and 4 or more drinks for women at one time, is the most frequent form of alcohol consumption worldwide, especially in younger people. This drinking pattern is popular and leads to increased mortality and morbidity. Therefore binge drinking is a major public health issue. The behavioural and neurological consequences of binge drinking are well characterized. Less is known about the systemic effects on the gut as the first organ in contact with alcohol. Chronic alcohol intake can lead to increased gut permeability, bacterial translocation and alterations in the gut microbiome in animal models. Recently bacterial translocation has been shown in healthy volunteers after a single alcohol binge. On immune cells, acute alcohol intake seems to have dichotomous effects. On the one hand immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory effects have been described, however, alcohol induced liver injury is driven by pro-inflammatory reactions. These immune effects seem to be driven by endotoxin or other bacterial products via Toll-like receptors that are translocated to the circulation via a defective gut barrier. Immune effects of alcohol have also been linked to hangover symptoms after an alcohol binge. Furthermore there is evidence that endotoxemia might also contributes to alcohol dependence by promoting prolonged and increased voluntary alcohol intake in mice. On the other hand mutant mice lacking important genes for immune responses exhibit decreased alcohol consumption. This indicates that immune signaling promotes alcohol consumption. Therefore it is tempting to speculate that increased gut permeability leading to increased bacterial translocation after an acute alcohol binge could promote the desire for further alcohol consumption. The investigators aim to test in this pilot trial whether one alcohol binge damages gut barrier function, increases bacterial translocation and causes innate immune dysfunction. Furthermore the effect of glucose and fructose will be studied too.

Conditions

• Binge Drinking

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Alcohol	every participant will drink vodka at a dose of 2ml/kg bodyweight
OTHER	Glucose	oral Glucose tolerance test
OTHER	Fructose	oral fructose tolerance test
OTHER	vehicle	control (water)

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-12-01
• Primary completion: 2019-02-22
• Completion: 2019-02-22
• First posted: 2015-10-06
• Last updated: 2020-05-15

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Austria