Red wine can help maintain immune system, UF resear...( une response. What this suggests P...),Health

"What this suggests," Percival said, "is that there's something in red wine that prevents suppression of the immune system. So it's OK to drink a glass of red wine. You can get the benefits without any apparent harm on immunity."

Percival said there are many different compounds in red wine and in grapes that could be contributing to the results, but she has not yet pinpointed which specific compound aids in maintaining normal immunity.

The rich pigment in red wine is due to antioxidants and blood tests showed that mice who drank wine had two times more antioxidant capacity than the animals who drank ethanol or water.

Percival used cabernet sauvignon and muscadine grapes to see if the variety of wine affected the immune response. The cabernet came from California and the muscadine from a local vineyard in North Central Florida. The wines were made at the food science and human nutrition department by researcher Charlie Sims.

Percival said she found the comparison of muscadine and cabernet inconclusive. Tests of enzymes in the liver, which detoxifies alcohol for the body, showed some differences between how the liver processed the two wines. Percival said she hopes to do further studies to determine whether muscadine might have greater protective effects because of its greater concentration of antioxidants.

"I was surprised to find no immune system suppression from the red wine, and we still don't know what it is that prevented the suppression," Percival said. "So we'd like to take this further and eventually look at this process in people."

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Contact: Susan Percival
352-392-1991
University of Florida
6-Aug-1999