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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 13|pp 13128—13146

Long-term low-dose ethanol intake improves healthspan and resists high-fat diet-induced obesity in mice

Yan Diao1,2, Junhui Nie1,3, Peizhu Tan1,3,5, Yuchen Zhao1,3, Tingting Zhao1,3, Jiajie Tu1,3, Heng Ji1,3, Yuwei Cao1,3, Zhaojing Wu1,3, Huan Liang4, Hui Huang1,3, Yanze Li1,3, Xu Gao1,3,5, Lingyun Zhou1,3,5
  • 1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
  • 2Department of Clinical Laboratory, Heilongjiang Province Hospital, Harbin, China
  • 3Translational Medicine Center of Northern China, Harbin, China
  • 4Department of Clinical Laboratory, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
  • 5Key Laboratory of Preservation of Human Genetic Resources and Disease Control in China, Ministry of Education, China
* Equal contribution
Received: January 18, 2020Accepted: May 1, 2020Published: July 8, 2020

Copyright © 2020 Diao et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Numerous epidemiological studies have reported that moderate alcohol drinking has beneficial effects. However, few studies have focused on the beneficial effects of ethanol, the common component in alcoholic beverages. Here we fed the C57BL/6 mice with 3.5% v/v ethanol as drinking water substitute to investigate the effects of long-term low-dose ethanol intake in vivo. We evaluated the metabolic rate and mitochondrial function of the long-term low-dose ethanol-intake (LLE) mice, assessed the exercise ability of LLE mice, and fed the LLE mice with a high-fat diet to investigate the potential impact of ethanol on it. The LLE mice showed improved thermogenic activity, physical performance, and mitochondrial function, as well as resistance against the high-fat diet-induced obesity with elevated insulin sensitivity and subdued inflammation. Our results suggest that long-term low-dose ethanol intake can improve healthspan and resist high-fat diet-induced obesity in mice. It may provide new insight into understanding the protective effects of moderate alcohol drinking.