Intraplatelet free calcium concentrations and alcohol-related blood pressure elevation in a middle-aged male population.

Elevated intracellular free calcium (Ca2+) has been proposed as a mechanism of alcohol-induced hypertension from animal experimental studies, but this has not been confirmed in man. In the present study, intraplatelet Ca2+ concentration (plt.[Ca2+]i) was measured in 83 middle-aged men, and the associations between alcohol consumption, age, body mass index (BMI), hematological and serum biochemical variables, plt.[Ca2+]i and blood pressure were analyzed. Plt.[Ca2+]i did not show a significant univariate correlation with alcohol consumption or with blood pressure, but did so with serum gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (gamma-GTP) levels. Age, BMI and serum gamma-GTP were selected as independent contributors to blood pressure, and gamma-GTP alone was selected as the determinant of plt.[Ca2+]i by multiple regression analyses. The association between gamma-GTP and plt.[Ca2+]i was shown to be common or at least very similar in both drinkers and nondrinkers by generalized linear model analysis. Therefore, chronic alcohol consumption in humans may relate to elevations of plt.[Ca2+]i, not mainly by the direct action of alcohol but by some metabolic alterations after alcohol consumption. The significance of elevated plt.[Ca2+]i in drinkers in the development of hypertension, however, remains obscure.