Protective Effects Of Grape Polyphenols On Brain Of Experimental Chronic Alcoholism

Background and objects: Alcoholism and addiction have been global problems. Drinking wine was fairly prevalent in our country. The disease incidence of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) was second only viral hepatitwas, and ALD was the secondly etiological factor of hepatitis. Following the elevation of living standard, the consumption of alcohol has risen in a large extent and the disease incidence of chronic alcoholism has risen year by year. Alcoholism was not only a health problem , but also a social problem, which we cann't ignore. Alcoholism can damage the function of multisystem and multiorgan. And the damage of alcoholism was more outstanding than other organs. Alcoholism can cause aphrenia, abnormal feeling, mental anomaly, dystaxia etc. There are so many women to drink wine, so researchers focus on fetal alcohol syndrome in western countries. The research of brain damage caused by chronic alcoholism was very rare. The researchs of alcoholism are concentrated in peripheral organs, and the researchs of liver are more than other organs. The experiment adopted liber drinking by increasing alcohol concentration gradually by referring foreign and dom pertinent literatures. We are satisfactory with the experiment for imitating the pathogenesy of chronic alcoholismm in mankind.Many scholars focus on grape polyphenol, which was polyphenols matter in natural plant. There are evidences that the polyphenolic antioxidants, especially those extracted from grape skin and seeds, may protect the brain from neuronal damage due to chronic ethanol adminwastration. At present, many scholars who initiate to research antioxidation of grape polyphenol through the point of view of protection of heart-blood. But the researchs implicating to porotection of brain are rarely. The mechanism of action about grape polyphenol was not clearly. Respecting there is still short of unified animal model of chronic alcoholism, the experiment seted up a teady new type animal model by referring a lot of foreign and dom pertinent literatures, thus, we can approach the brain damage mechanismof chronic alcoholism and polyphenol antioxidation deeply.Methods: We selected adult male Wistar rats which weight from 250-300 gramma as objects. We trainded all rats to swim in water maze before initiation, for selecting rats who fit the condition of experiment. We devided 60 rats to four groups: 1) control group, we supplied water and common animal feeds; 2) polyphenol group, we supplied water and grape polyphenol (100g/kg/d); 3) alcohol-fed group, we supplied alcohol and common animal feeds; 4) therapy group, we supplied alcohol and polyphenol. Initial concentration of alcohol was 6%, after five days was 9%, after ten days was 12%, after fifteen days we kept supplying 20% alcohol to alcohol-fed subjects. We measured rats weight per week and used water maze to detect memory function of rats at different months. Brain samples with HE staining from frontal lobe, temporal lobe and hippocampus and cerebellum with light microscopic methods. We observed apoptosis of neurons with immunohistochemistry analyse. We carried out penetrating research to illuminate the mechanism of brain damage caused by choronic alcoholismmi and protection of polyphenol through the findings of biology, ethology, pathology and apoptosis.Results: We adopted a new type animal model of chronic alcoholism which was good at stability, reproducibility, convenient manipulating and low mortality. Liberty drinking has not trauma, so it ensure to feed full dose ethanol long-term. The model imitated the chronic alcoholism process of mankind. By measuring body weight, we can see that alcohol-fed subjects and therapy subjects both occure negative rise. The decrease of body weight of alcohol-fed subjects was more than therapy subjects remarkably. On the country, body weight of rats of therapy subjects was more than alcohol-fed subjects. The assay shows that polyphenol can lessen the degree of dystrophia caused by chronic alcoholism. Our findings indicated that alcohol-fed subjects occure visible functional disturbance of remembrance by detecting ethology, but therapy subjects and other subjects are nomal . The results showed that polyphenol can releave functional disturbance ofremembrance effectively. The results of pathology showed that the quantity of neurons were decreased in hippocampus, frontal lobe, cortex of temporal lobe in alcohol-fed subjects. At the same time, neuronal degeneration and neuronal necrosis were seen. And more drinking more brain damage of pathology. There wasn't marked change of Cell quantity in cerebellum, but a few degenerative neurons. We also saw meninges becaming thicker than control subjects, inflammatory cell infiltrating and swelling meninges blood vessels. The pathological changes of neurons of therapy subjects were lighter than alcohol-fed subjects, but the ratio of bcl-2/bax of therapy subjects was not higher than alcohol-fed subjects. Our findings showed that apoptosis was not the main cause in brain damage of chronic alcoholism.Conclusion: Above all assays, we can conclude that animal model of chronic alcoholism can be successfully established with liber drinking alcohol by increasing dose gradually. Chronic alcoholism caused the rat's weight transiently decreasing, while polyphenol weakened the effect. The rats showed progressive cognition impairment following chronic alcohol consumption, while polyphenol prevented brain damage. The pyramidal neurons of rats decreased progressively after chronic alcohol consumption, while polyphenol lessened neurons injury. Apoptosis was not the main cause in brain damage of chronic alcoholism. We should study the effect on polyphenol of inhibiting apoptosis go step further.