Link between beverage intake, inflammatory cytokines may pave way for dietary interventions

Understanding the relationship between beverage consumption and circulating inflammatory cytokines may help inform new targets for treatment, suggests a study.

Such awareness may then lead to dietary interventions that can complement existing therapies for clinician disease, according to the authors.

For instance, drinking coffee showed a potential association with reduced levels of macrophage colony-stimulating factor (β, ‒0.57, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], ‒1.06 to ‒0.08; p=0.022) and stem cell growth factor beta (β, ‒0.64, 95 percent CI, ‒1.16 to ‒0.12; p=0.016), as well as an increase in levels of TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (β, 0.43, 95 percent CI, 0.06‒0.8; p=0.023).

On the other hand, tea consumption was potentially associated with a decrease in interleukin-8 levels (β, ‒0.45, 95 percent CI, ‒0.9 to 0; p=0.045).

Additionally, alcohol consumption correlated with lower levels of regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (β, −0.24, 95 percent CI, −0.48 to 0; p=0.047), as well as increased levels of stem cell factor (β, 0.17, 95 percent CI, 0.02‒0.31; p=0.023) and stromal cell-derived factor-1 alpha (β, 0.20, 95 percent CI, 0.04‒0.36; p=0.013).

This study used the UK Biobank to obtain data on the consumption of coffee, tea, and alcohol from 428,860, 447,485, and 462,346 individuals, respectively. The authors also collected data on 41 inflammatory cytokines from summary statistics of 8,293 healthy participants from Finnish cohorts.

“Previous studies have primarily concentrated on established cytokines, neglecting the potential impact of beverage consumption on lesser-studied but equally important cytokines,” the authors said.