Moderate alcohol consumption and cardiovascular diseases.

While excessive ethanol consumption can result in higher rate of morbidity and mortality resulting from several diseases including cancer and cirrhosi s, epidemiological studies suggest that moderate alcohol ingestion reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases. However, the precise mechanisms by whi ch moderate alcohol consumption protects against coronary heart disease (CH D) is not fully understood. Epidemiological studies suggest that alcohol co nsumption influences several risk factors for CHD including blood pressure, plasma cholesterol levels, platelet function, and fibrinolytic parameters, preventing both vascular thrombosis and occlusion. Turning to molecular an d cellular levels, ethanol has been shown to act on several signal transduc tion mechanisms involve in the inhibition of smooth muscle cells proliferat ion and migration and in the activation of the release of vasoactive factor s from vascular cells such as nitric oxide (NO). The latter is of importanc e since NO has been shown to possess antioxidant, antiaggregant properties, to regulate vascular tone and to inhibit both proliferation of smooth musc le cells and adhesion of leukocytes. Altogether, the above mentioned benefi cial properties of moderate concentration of ethanol might help to explain the cardio- and vascular protection induced by ethanol. This review compels several bibliographic data concerning the cardiovascular effect of moderat e alcohol consumption. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales, Elsevi er SAS.