ORIGINAL ARTICLE Effect of moderate alcohol consumption on adipokines and insulin sensitivity in lean and overweight men: a diet intervention study JWJ Beulens 1,2 , EC de Zoete 1,2 , FJ Kok 2 , G Schaafsma 1 and HFJ Hendriks 1 1 TNO Quality of Life, Business unit Biosciences, Zeist, The Netherlands and 2 Wageningen University, Department of Human Nutrition, Wageningen, The Netherlands Objective: Moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a decreased risk of type II diabetes. This study investigates the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on adipokines and insulin sensitivity. Subjects: Twenty healthy, lean (body mass index (BMI) 18.5–25 kg/m 2 ; n ¼ 11) or overweight (BMI427 kg/m 2 ; n ¼ 9) men (18–25 years). Methods: Three cans of beer (40 g alcohol) or alcohol-free beer daily during 3 weeks. Results: Adiponectin and ghrelin concentrations increased (Po0.01) by 11 and 8%, while acylation-stimulating protein (ASP) concentrations decreased by 12% (P ¼ 0.04) after moderate alcohol consumption. Concentrations of leptin and resistin remained unchanged. Insulin sensitivity by an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was not affected by moderate alcohol consumption, but 2 h glucose concentrations were lower (P ¼ 0.01) after beer (4.570.1 mmol/l) than alcohol-free beer (4.970.1 mmol/l). Both free fatty acids and glucagon concentrations showed a stronger increase (Po0.01) after 90 min during OGTT after beer than alcohol-free beer. Changes of adiponectin were positively correlated (r ¼ 0.69, Po0.001), and changes of leptin (r ¼0.53, P ¼ 0.016) and ASP (r ¼0.43, P ¼ 0.067) were negatively correlated with changes of insulin sensitivity index. All these results did not differ between lean and overweight men. Conclusions: Moderate alcohol consumption increased adiponectin and ghrelin, while it decreased ASP concentrations both in lean and overweight men. These changes are in line with the hypothesized improvement of insulin sensitivity, but did not affect insulin sensitivity within 3 weeks of moderate alcohol consumption. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2008) 62, 1098–1105; doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602821; published online 6 June 2007 Keywords: moderate alcohol consumption; adiponectin; leptin; acylation-stimulating protein; insulin sensitivity Introduction Moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a de- creased risk of type II diabetes (Koppes et al., 2005), which could be explained by improved insulin sensitivity after moderate alcohol consumption (Davies et al., 2002; Sierksma et al., 2004). Positive associations between alcohol consump- tion and insulin sensitivity are consistently reported in cross- sectional studies (Kiechl et al., 1996; Bell et al., 2000), but randomized controlled studies report contradictory results (Cordain et al., 1997; Cordain et al., 2000; Davies et al., 2002; Zilkens et al., 2003; Beulens et al., 2006). Sierksma et al. (2004) suggested that an increase of adiponectin could precede changes of insulin sensitivity with moderate alcohol consumption. Adiponectin is thought to improve insulin sensitivity by increased glucose uptake and fatty acid oxidation in muscle tissue (Yamauchi et al., 2001). Adipose tissue secretes several other proteins that may also be related to insulin sensitivity (Havel, 2004; Meier and Gressner, 2004). The adipokines leptin and resistin are inversely associated with insulin sensitivity (Havel, 2004; Received 12 October 2006; revised 3 April 2007; accepted 30 April 2007; published online 6 June 2007 Correspondence: Dr HFJ Hendriks, TNO Quality of Life, Business unit Biosciences, PO Box 360, 3700 AJ Zeist, The Netherlands. E-mail: henk.hendriks@tno.nl Contributors: JWJB had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Study concept and design: JWJB, FJK, GS, HFJH. Acquisition of data: JWJB, HFJH. Analysis and interpretation of the data: JWJB, ECdZ, FJK, GS, HFJH. Drafting of the manuscript: JWJB, ECdZ. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: JWJB, ECdZ, FJK, GS, HFJH. Statistical analysis: JWJB, ECdZ. Study supervision: HFJH. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2008) 62, 1098–1105 & 2008 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved 0954-3007/08 $30.00 www.nature.com/ejcn