Alcohol and related dietary effects on mouse natural killer-cell activity

Natural killer (NK) cell activity of spleen cells from female C57BL/6 mice receiving 10% w/v alcohol solution for 4 weeks was studied in mice fed a nutritionally complete crystalline amino-acid diet and in mice fed diets moderately deficient in (i) tyrosine and phenylalanine or (ii) methionine. Natural killer cell activity was determined in a 4-hr cytolytic chromium-release assay against YAC-1 lymphoma cells. Alcohol consumption did not effect NK cell-mediated lysis irrespective of nutritional status; however, NK-cell activity was depressed in mice fed the tyrosine- and phenylalanine-deficient diet and was enhanced in mice fed the methionine-deficient diet. These data suggest that the changes in immune function often observed in alcoholics may be more closely linked to dietary and nutritional status than to the direct effects of the ingested alcohol.