Weinberg J
Department of Anatomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Alcohol Alcohol Suppl. 1994;2:401-9.
It has been known for many years that alcohol can alter both endocrine and immune function in the adult organism. Acting directly on the endocrine glands themselves, and/or at the level of the pituitary or brain, alcohol has been shown to alter secretory activity of most of the endocrine systems that have been studied. Similarly, the association between alcoholism and infections and between alcoholism and certain forms of cancer has long been recognized by clinicians. While for many years there was uncertainty about the extent to which the alterations in immune function were a direct result of alcohol consumption or a consequence of the medical complications of alcoholism, recent research on the effects of alcohol on cell-mediated and humoral immunity have demonstrated that alcohol consumption may indeed be associated with immune impairment, independent of nutritional deficiencies, liver disease, or general poor health that may occur. However, it is only recently, as our knowledge of the teratogenic effects of alcohol on the developing organism has expanded, that the effects of fetal alcohol exposure on endocrine and immune function of the offspring have begun to receive considerable attention. This review will discuss recent clinical and experimental literature on the effects of fetal alcohol exposure on offspring endocrine and immune development.
多年来人们已经知道，酒精会改变成年生物体的内分泌和免疫功能。酒精已被证明可直接作用于内分泌腺本身，和/或在垂体或大脑水平上，改变大多数已研究的内分泌系统的分泌活动。同样，临床医生早就认识到酗酒与感染以及酗酒与某些癌症之间的关联。虽然多年来，免疫功能的改变在多大程度上是饮酒的直接结果还是酗酒的医学并发症的后果尚不确定，但最近关于酒精对细胞介导免疫和体液免疫影响的研究表明，饮酒确实可能与免疫损害有关，与可能出现的营养缺乏、肝脏疾病或总体健康状况不佳无关。然而，直到最近，随着我们对酒精对发育中生物体致畸作用的认识不断扩大，胎儿酒精暴露对后代内分泌和免疫功能的影响才开始受到相当多的关注。这篇综述将讨论最近关于胎儿酒精暴露对后代内分泌和免疫发育影响的临床和实验文献。
