Alcohol consumption and liver damage: A balancing act for the innate immune system

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is associated with increased infection rates and disturbed immune system activation. It is unclear if this deficiency is caused primarily by alcohol or by progressive liver damage. To investigate this question, we subjected 20 female C57BL/6 mice to Lieber-DeCarli model of alcohol feeding for 10 weeks and tested ex vivo (killing capacity and neutrophil phagocytosis) and in vivo immune reactions (pathogen clearance from the blood stream) to E. coli. This model has been reported to damage gut barrier, change the microbiome and cause mild ALD. Furthermore, we tested ex vivo immune reac…