Ethanol-induced changes in lymphoid cell populations: relationship to liver pathology

Our study related the role of different types of dietary fat and pathologic liver injury to alterations in lymphoid cells in spleen, thymus and peripheral blood in chronically ethanol fed rats. Animals were fed either corn oil or saturated fats with ethanol. The most significant observation was that a profound decrease in CD4⁺ CD8^-, CD4^- CD8⁺ and macrophages was seen in animals fed corn oil and ethanol; similar changes were not seen in the saturated fatethanol group. In addition, the decline in CD4⁺ CD8^-, CD4^- CD8⁺ and B cells in the spleen correlated with severity of liver injury in the corn oil-ethanol group. These results suggest that feeding of corn oil and ethanol which leads to liver injury is associated with a significant decrease in lymphoid cells in thymus, spleen and peripheral blood; feeding saturated fat with ethanol which is not associated with liver injury prevents this decrease in lymphoid cells.