Increasing evidence suggests that alcohol abuse may be linked to adverse immunomodulatory effects on immune responses. Our study was undertaken to clarify the immunological consequences of chronic and acute alcohol exposure on differentiation and maturation of human dendritic cells (DCs). Using immunochemical and cytofluorimetric analysis we determined the phenotype and functions of monocyte-derived DCs from alcoholics and healthy subjects and analyzed their ability to respond to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the presence or absence of ethanol (EtOH) exposure. Our results showed that alcoholics' monocytes differentiated to immature DCs with altered phenotype and functions (alc-iDCs). Alc-iDCs showed fewer CD1a + cells, weaker CD86 expression and higher HLA-DR expression associated with lower endocytosis and allostimulatory functions than iDCs from healthy subjects (control-iDCs). Despite these impairments, alc-iDCs produced TNF-α and IL-6 in large amounts. LPS stimulation failed to induce full phenotypical and functional alc-iDC maturation. In vitro acute EtOH exposure also prevented alc-iDCs and control-iDCs from maturing in response to LPS. T-cell priming experiments showed that EtOH treatment prevented LPS-stimulated control-iDCs from priming and polarizing naïve allogeneic T cells into Th1 cells, thus favouring a predominant Th2 environment. Collectively, our results provide evidence that chronic and acute alcohol exposure prevents DCs from differentiating and maturing in response to a microbial stimulus.
Thiamine (Th) deficiency is a major problem in alcoholics. In this study, the relationship of alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) to Th and its esters, as well as the diagnostic power of Th and its esters were investigated.Th and its esters were assessed in a series of chronic alcoholics (and in controls) using an improved method.No association was found between AWS severity and Th and its esters, while the diagnostic power of thiamine diphosphate (TDP) and Th was very high. TDP was the most significant among the parameters under study, confirming that erythrocyte TDP is a suitable marker of alcoholism: TDP sensitivity across subjects was 84.1%, specificity 85.4%, positive predictive value 82.4%, and negative predictive value 88.0%.
The rate of women involved in alcohol abuse is rapidly increasing and the age of first use tends dramatically to decrease. The health and social costs are high both for the adverse effects on physical and psychological woman health, and for the teratogenic effect of alcohol on fetal development. The review takes in account physiological aspects of alcohol effects according to age and gender differences. Interaction between alcohol habit and environment are discussed together with the risk of co-exposure to alcohol and pollutants. The role of biomarkers may be invaluable for clinical utility, prevention and early intervention above all to avoid prenatal, not reversible damages. The update of alcohol studies shows the greater severity of alcohol damage in female and the need of gender-targeted intervention.
This paper highlights gender peculiarities in the neuroscience of alcohol effects and draws attention to emerging problems due to simultaneous exposure to alcohol and environmental factors. All the available gender studies on alcohol show greater severity of alcohol-related damage, including brain damage, in females compared with males. The differences are due to physiological peculiarities that make women more vulnerable to the effects of alcohol. Today the trend to start consuming alcohol at a younger age, together with the growing number of women drinking excessively, is increasing the alcohol-related risks to women's health and justifying the need for better, gender-based studies of alcohol use and abuse. A further aspect to consider in this context is the risk of the occurrence of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders and foetal alcohol syndrome in the offspring of women who drink during pregnancy. Several lines of evidence indicate that prenatal ethanol exposure can influence cell proliferation and differentiation in the central nervous system, causing severe neurotoxicity and permanent birth defects.
To date, several concerns have been raised on the purity of ingredients employed in the manufacturing processes of refill fluids and cartridges, the device functionality, and the quality control of electronic cigarettes. This article reviews analytical methods so far described for the analysis of liquids to detect their chemical components and to investigate the presence of toxicants and carcinogens that can potentially occur as impurities of ingredients or as a consequence of their degradation. Based on the scientific literature, high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection (HPLC/DAD) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) are most appropriate for determining nicotine and related compounds in fluids and cartridges, whereas LC-MS/MS has been successfully used to determine nitrosamines. Content analyses of glycols have been performed using gas chromatography equipped with flame ionization detector or gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), whereas carbonyl and other volatile organic compounds determinations have been performed by HPLC/DAD and GC/MS, respectively. Content analyses of heavy metals have been performed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy or inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Since new potentially toxic substances may be created during heating, it is also necessary to investigate the chemical composition of generated aerosol. In this case, similar methods applied for tobacco smoke can be adopted. A broad range of analytical techniques are available for the detection of constituents and toxicants in e-liquids and cartridges. Analyses of liquids have been performed with pharmacopeia procedures and methods (International Organization for Standardization, Environmental Protection Agency, and American Public Health Association) developed for other matrices but applicable to e-liquids. Because new potentially harmful substances may be produced during heating process, analyses of aerosol are needed to correlate its composition to the chemical components of liquids.
