Faculty Collaboration Database

Alcohol enhances symptoms and propensity for infection in inflammatory bowel disease patients and a murine model of DSS-induced colitis. J Leukoc Biol 2018 Sep;104(3):543-555

Date

05/19/2018

Pubmed ID

29775230

Pubmed Central ID

PMC6662186

DOI

10.1002/JLB.4MA1217-506R

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85047609361 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   22 Citations

Abstract

Over 1.4 million Americans have been diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and ulcerative colitis (UC) makes up approximately half of those diagnoses. As a disease, UC cycles between periods of remission and flare, which is characterized by intense abdominal pain, increased weight loss, intestinal inflammation, rectal bleeding, and dehydration. Interestingly, a widespread recommendation to IBD patients for avoidance of a flare period is "Don't Drink Alcohol" as recent work correlated alcohol consumption with increased GI symptoms in patients with IBD. Alcohol alone not only induces a systemic pro-inflammatory response, but can also be directly harmful to gut barrier integrity. However, how alcohol could result in the exacerbation of UC in both patients and murine models of colitis has yet to be elucidated. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective analysis of patients admitted for IBD with a documented history of alcohol use in conjunction with a newly developed mouse model of binge alcohol consumption following dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. We found that alcohol negatively impacts clinical outcomes of patients with IBD, specifically increased intestinal infections, antibiotic injections, abdomen CT scans, and large intestine biopsies. Furthermore, in our mouse model of binge alcohol consumption following an induced colitis flare, we found alcohol exacerbates weight loss, clinical scores, colonic shortening and inflammation, and propensity to infection. These findings highlight alcohol's ability to potentiate symptoms and susceptibility to infection in UC and suggest alcohol as an underlying factor in perpetuating symptoms of IBD.

Author List

Cannon AR, Kuprys PV, Cobb AN, Ding X, Kothari AN, Kuo PC, Eberhardt JM, Hammer AM, Morris NL, Li X, Choudhry MA

Authors

Adrienne Cobb MD Assistant Professor in the Surgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Anai N. Kothari MD Assistant Professor in the Surgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Aged
Alcohol Drinking
Animals
Dextran Sulfate
Disease Models, Animal
Female
Humans
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Middle Aged