VII. TYPE OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION A. Red Wine versus White Wine
B. French Red Wine versus German White Wine
Investigative study: Because endothelial type nitric oxide (NO) synthase exerts vasoprotective effects and red wine consumption has been associated with a reduction of cardiovascular disease but without molecular basis, Wallerath et al. studied the effect of red wine on endothelial-type nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression and eNOS activity in human endothelial cells.
Methods: In the method used in this study, human endothelial cells were treated with red wine and eNOS messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) was measured by RNase protection assay and other techniques.
Results: The results showed that incubation of endothelial cells with red wines from France upregulated eNOS mRNA and protein expression. In contrast, red wines from Germany showed little or no effect on eNOS expression. No significant difference in eNOS mRNA expression could be detected between ‘‘en barrique’’ (matured in oak barrels) and ‘‘non-barrique’’ (matured in steel attacks) produced French red wines. Endothelial cells treated with French red wines produced up to three times more bioactive NO than did control cells. French red wines increased the activity of the eNOS promoter, and the eNOS mRNA stability was also increased by red wine.