ABSTRACT
Both epidemiologic and experimental evidence exist to indicate that mild-tomoderate alcohol consumption is associated with a reduced incidence of mortality and morbidity from coronary heart disease. The consumption of wine, particularly red wine, imparts a greater benefit in the prevention of coronary heart disease than the consumption of other alcoholic beverages. The cardioprotective effects of red wine have been attributed to several polyphenolic antioxidants including resveratrol and proanthocyanidins. The mechanism of cardioprotection afforded by alcohol consumption remains highly speculative. It appears that moderate alcohol consumption induces a significant amount of oxidative stress to the heart, which then induces the expression of several cardioprotective oxidative stressinducible proteins including heat shock proteins (HSPs) and antioxidants. Feeding rats with red wine extract or its polyphenolic antioxidants, as well as alcohol, results in the improvement of postischemic ventricular function. Both wine and alcohol trigger a signal transduction cascade by reducing proapoptotic transcription factors and genes, such as JNK-1 and c-Jun, thereby potentiating an antideath signal. Several HSPs and antioxidant proteins are induced in the heart after three
weeks of alcohol consumption, resulting in the reduction of myocardial infarct size and cardiomyocyte apoptosis. It appears, therefore, that both wine and alcohol reduce myocardial ischemic-reperfusion injury, although the mechanisms of cardioprotection are different in the two cases.
