Effect of ethanol on human colon carcinoma CaCo-2 and HT-29 cell lines during the maturation process

The aim of the study was to ascertain whether the exposure to ethanol of human colon carcinoma CaCo-2 and HT-29 cell lines affects the differentiation process. As an index of enterocytic differentiation, the expression of sucrase, alkaline phosphatase, alpha 2,6-sialyltransferase toward the N-acetyllactosaminic sequence, and beta 1,4-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase (beta 1,4GalNAc-transferase) was examined. The latter enzyme is responsible for the biosynthesis of Sda carbohydrate histo-blood antigen, which mainly occurs in human colonic cells; its expression in CaCo-2 cells depends strictly on the enterocytic differentiation. The addition of ethanol in the culture medium resulted in a significant increment of sucrase and alpha 2,6-sialyltransferase activities in both cell lines, as well as the beta 1,4GalNAc-transferase activity in CaCo-2 cells and alkaline phosphatase activity in HT-29 cells. The increment was dose-dependent in the range between 50 and 200 mM ethanol and evident after 2 days of exposure in both cell systems. These results support the notion that, as occurs for cell lines of different origin, the ethanol in vitro positively affects the differentiation of intestinal cells, namely along the enterocytic lineage. The putative mechanism by which ethanol interferes with the maturation process of colonic cells is discussed.