Research in Brief: How Binge Drinking Immediately Harms the Gut
Study Reveals How Binge Drinking Quickly Triggers Gut Damage and Inflammation
BOSTON — Research shows that a single drinking binge — roughly four drinks for women or five for men within about two hours — can disrupt the gastrointestinal tract in measurable ways. Even in healthy adults, such a rapid influx of alcohol can weaken the gut lining, making it less able to perform one of its core jobs: keeping bacteria and toxins from entering the bloodstream, a phenomenon known as “leaky gut.”
Now, investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have identified how binge drinking damages the gut, and why those leaks in the system may set off harmful inflammation long after the last drink is poured. The findings are published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Led by first author Scott Minchenberg, MD, PhD, a clinical fellow in gastroenterology and hepatology at BIDMC, the scientists examined how short bursts of high-dose alcohol affected different parts of the gut. Their findings suggested that even brief episodes of heavy drinking cause injury, calling in cells normally reserved for fighting invading germs to the lining of the gut.
Certain immune cells, called neutrophils, can release web-like structures known as NETs that directly damage the upper small intestine and weaken its barrier, helping explain the “leaky gut” that can let bacterial toxins slip into the bloodstream.
When the researchers blocked the NETs using a simple enzyme to break them down, they observed a reduced number of immune cells in the gut lining and less bacterial leakage; that is, the enzyme prevented gut damage.
"We know that excessive drinking can disrupt the gut and expose the liver to harmful bacterial products, but surprisingly little was known about how the upper intestine responds in the earliest stages,” said corresponding author Gyongyi Szabo, MD, PhD, who is also Chief Academic Officer at BIDMC and Beth Israel Lahey Health. “Our study shows that even short bouts of binge drinking can trigger inflammation and weaken the gut barrier, highlighting a potential early step in alcohol-related gut and liver injury."
Co-authors included Marti Ortega Ribera, Alejandro Hionides Gutierrez, Aditi Datta, Viliam Brezani, Bruna Santos, Su Min Hong, Subhash Kulkarni and Prashanth Thevkar Nagesh of BIDMC. This work was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health (grants R56AA017729 and R01AA011576). Szabo is a scientific consultant for Cyta Therapeutics, Durect, Evive, Pandion Therapeutics, Pfizer, Surrozen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novo Nordisk, Resolution Therapeutics, and also holds equity in Glympse Bio, Zomagen, and Satellite Bio. She received royalties from UpToDate and Springer. The remaining authors have no competing interests to report.
About Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a leading academic medical center, where extraordinary care is supported by high-quality education and research. BIDMC is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and consistently ranks as a national leader among independent hospitals in National Institutes of Health funding. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a part of Beth Israel Lahey Health, a healthcare system that brings together academic medical centers and teaching hospitals, community and specialty hospitals, more than 4,700 physicians and 39,000 employees in a shared mission to expand access to great care and advance the science and practice of medicine through groundbreaking research and education.
