gms | German Medical Science

Objectives: Excessive drinking is a significant risk factor for traumatic injury. There is a rising clinical and experimental evidence that acute alcohol intoxication exerts anti-inflammatory effects on the general immune response, thus, potentially contributing to the development of secondary infectious complications during the hospital stay. We performed a prospective study to evaluate the impact of acute alcohol intoxication on leukocyte functionality in a time- and dose-dependent manner in healthy volunteers.

Methods: 12 female and 10 male healthy volunteers (HV) received a predefined amount of a whiskey-cola mixed drink every 20min for 4h to achieve a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 1 per mille. Blood samples were taken before and 2h, 4h, 6h, 24h and 48h after starting alcohol drinking. Total leukocyte counts, including monocytes and granulocytes as well as their functions with regard to the production of reactive oxidative species (ROS), phagocytosis and apoptosis were determined and analyzed by flow cytometry, respectively. The differences to the sober stage were statistically evaluated.

Results: After 4h of controlled drinking, all HV reached a mean BAC of 1 per mille. Total leukocyte counts significantly increased after 2h and 4h, while granulocytes and monocytes counts decreased at 4h and 6h. Monocytes increased significantly after 24h and 48h. While the total number of ROS-producing leukocytes and notably granulocytes significantly increased, in parallel, the intracellular ROS intensity/capacity decreased at 2h and 6h. The numbers of ROS+ Monocytes have shown a delayed modulation of ROS, with a significant reduction in the total number of ROS-producing cells at 48h and a significantly reduced intracellular ROS intensity/capacity at 24h. Phagocytizing capacity of leukocytes significantly reduced at 4h and 6h. In general leukocytes and notably granulocytes demonstrated significantly increased early (2h), while monocyte exerted significantly increased late apoptosis (24h and 48h).

Conclusion: We have shown that an acute intoxication with alcohol has significant anti-inflammatory effects in healthy volunteers in regard to leukocyte quantities and their diverse functions in time- and dose-dependent manner. Given that these effects were observed in HV, it can be postulated that the impact of an acute intoxication with alcohol significantly affects the immediate inflammatory response of traumatized patients to injury, and that the clinical outcome might be even more aggravating. In further studies, the time- and dose-dependent effects of an acute intoxication with alcohol on the very early and late post-traumatic immune competence should be elaborated, to potentially recognize early significant risk-factors for worse outcome.