Young Adult Binge Drinkers Have Immunophenotypical Disarrangements In Peripheral Natural Killer Cells.

Alcohol consumption is an issue of worldwide relevance and a national scale problem in Mexico. The consumption pattern of large amounts in weekends is rapidly increasing in young adults between 18-29 years. Despite various studies have focused on the noxious effect of alcohol in immunity, the changes in the immunoprofiles of peripheral blood cells have not been completely described. Natural Killer Cells (NKC) are lymphoid origin cells of the immune system that are responsible of defense against tumors among other functions. In homeostatic conditions, they have found to be in a state of "dynamic balance" between activation and inhibition stimuli, which if broken, may lead to immunosuppression or activation of cytotoxic mechanisms. In this study we evaluated the immunoprofile of peripheral NKC of 54 young adults, 29 of which were binge drinkers and 25 low risk (LR), as classified by validated tools. Drinking habits were assessed. Blood samples were collected to perform hematic biometry and liver enzyme tests. Peripheral NKC were identified by FACS, and stained for CCR2, CCR4, CCR5, CXCR4, CD 69, CD127, CD137, TLR4 and Granzyme B. The data were analyzed using the T-test and Mann- Whitney's U-test for contrasts, and the effect size was obtained in order to evaluate the impact of each immunoprofile. The binge group showed increased expression of CCR5 and PD-1 in NKC respect to the LR, and decreased expression of TLR4, along with less CCR4+ cells. Moreover, the increase found in CCR5 and PD-1 expression was correlated to the number of drinks in last occasion. Our findings show that young binge drinkers have different immunoprofiles that could suggest an early status of immunosupression and trafficking of NKC to the liver, that could be related to the onset of primeval liver damage.