Changes in the fecal profile of inflammatory markers after moderate consumption of red wine: a human trial study

The aim of this work was to evaluate the potential of moderate consumption of red wine to modulate the intestinal inflammation response on healthy humans. Fecal samples from a human intervention study (n=34) were collected before and after consumption of red wine for 4 weeks, and 24 immune markers including immunoglobulins, cytokines, chemokines and growth factors, were analysed. When considering the whole group of case volunteers, almost no statistically significant differences were found in the immune markers after wine consumption. However, a detailed exploration of the values differentiated a 6-volunteer subgroup that showed unusually high values of cytokines before wine consumption. For this subgroup, wine consumption significantly reduced the content of 16 out of 24 markers down to usual values, especially noticeable for cytokines related to the promotion of initial inflammation (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin 6 and interferon-gamma). This study reveals, for the first time, changes in the fecal profile of inflammatory markers after moderate consumption of red wine.