Effect of ethanol on sialidase activity of peripheral lymphocytes

Sialidase activity of peripheral mononuclear cells, which are mostly lymphocytes, was found to be increased by lectin stimulations in in vitro experiments, but this induction was suppressed in the presence of 50 mM ethanol. This increasing change and its suppressive effect by lectins and ethanol were parallel to blastogenic change of the cells determined by 3H-thymidine uptake. In in vivo, sialidase activity of peripheral MNC prepared from patients with alcoholic liver disease was found to be decreased or not increased in 50% of the cases, in contrast to the marked increase of the activity in non-alcoholic liver diseases observed in our previous study.