Effect of chronic alcohol consumption on apoptosis of lymphocytes: role of caspase-3 and fas ligands

Address for corespondence:\ud N. Boyadjieva;\ud Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology;\ud Medical Faculty;\ud Medical University - Sofia;\ud 2 Zdrave str.;\ud 1431 Sofia;\ud tel. 02 91-72-61Ethanol has been shown to acutely increase the apoptosis in various\ud cells. But the effect of ethanol on FasL-mediated apoptosis of lymphocytes is\ud not well established. The aim of present study is to evaluate the mitogen-induced\ud proliferation in vitro and apoptosis of lymphocytes obtained from the spleens of\ud alcohol and nonalcohol fed rats. We also determined whether caspase-3 or soluble\ud FasL play a role in apoptotic effect of ethanol on lymphocytes. Here, we found that\ud chronic alcohol administration increased both apoptosis and caspase-3 activity and\ud decreased the number of T lymphocytes via depressing the proliferation and activating\ud the apoptotic cell death in cultured splenocytes. Furthermore, we identifi ed\ud that caspase-3 and soluble FasL play a role in apoptosis of lymphocytes