Carneiro Angelo, Assunção Marco, De Freitas Victor, Paula-Barbosa Manuel Maria, Andrade José Paulo
Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Al. Prof. Hernâni Monteiro, 4200-319 Porto, Portugal.
Alcohol Alcohol. 2008 Jul-Aug;43(4):408-15. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agn024. Epub 2008 Apr 29.
Chronic ethanol consumption leads to oxidative damage in the central nervous system inducing neuronal degeneration and impairment of brain functions. Nevertheless, it has been reported that grape polyphenols might prevent the alluded ethanol effects. We have reported that prolonged red wine intake improves hippocampal formation oxidative status, a finding not replicated using Port wine. Thus, we thought of interest to compare the effects of chronic ingestion of these wines in the morphology of dentate gyrus (DG) neurons that are particularly vulnerable to alcohol effects.
Six-month-old Wistar rats were fed either with red wine or Port wine (both with 20% ethanol content, v/v), and the results were compared with 20% (v/v) ethanol-treated, ethanol/glucose and pair-fed control groups. After 6 months of treatment, the layer volumes of the DG and the total number of granule and hilar neurons were estimated. The dendritic trees of granule cells were also studied in Golgi-impregnated material.
The number of granule cells and the DG layer volumes were similar among all groups. However, the number of hilar neurons was reduced in Port wine, ethanol-treated and ethanol/glucose animals. Furthermore, the granule cells from these groups showed a decrease in the total dendritic length.
Although the Port wine and red wine have similar amounts of flavanols with identical ability to protect against oxidative stress, the differences observed are probably related to the very dissimilar processes of wine production, leading in Port wine to a high content of sugars, which are known to have potent pro-oxidant effects.
长期摄入乙醇会导致中枢神经系统氧化损伤，引发神经元变性和脑功能损害。然而，有报道称葡萄多酚可能预防上述乙醇效应。我们曾报道，长期饮用红酒可改善海马结构的氧化状态，而波特酒未出现此现象。因此，我们认为比较长期饮用这两种葡萄酒对齿状回（DG）神经元形态的影响很有意义，齿状回神经元对酒精效应尤为敏感。
给6月龄Wistar大鼠分别喂食红酒或波特酒（两者乙醇含量均为20%，v/v），并将结果与20%（v/v）乙醇处理组、乙醇/葡萄糖组和配对喂养对照组进行比较。治疗6个月后，估计DG的层体积以及颗粒细胞和门区神经元的总数。还在高尔基染色材料中研究了颗粒细胞的树突。
所有组的颗粒细胞数量和DG层体积相似。然而，波特酒组、乙醇处理组和乙醇/葡萄糖组的门区神经元数量减少。此外，这些组的颗粒细胞总树突长度减少。
尽管波特酒和红酒的黄烷醇含量相似，且具有相同的抗氧化应激能力，但观察到的差异可能与葡萄酒生产过程差异很大有关，这导致波特酒中糖含量很高，而糖具有很强的促氧化作用。
