Acetaldehyde metabolism in liver injury

Hobara, N.

Arukoru Kenkyu to Yakubutsu Izon 20(1): 9-27

1985


ISSN/ISBN: 0389-4118
PMID: 4038168
Document Number: 262457
Acetaldehyde metabolism in liver injury induced by administration of carbon tetrachloride or D-galactosamine was studied in rats using pentobarbital as an anesthetic which had least effect on ethanol metabolism. In acute liver injury and in regnerating liver after partial hepatectomy as a repair model of liver injury, high levels of acetaldehyde concentration in both the blood and liver after ethanol administration were derived from the decrease in aldehyde dehydrogenase activity in the liver mitochondrial fraction. When cyanamide and ethanol were administered to normal rats to maintain the liver acetaldehyde level at high concentrations (50-750 .mu.M), liver mitochondrial injury, such as an increase in serum ornithine carbamoyltransferase activity or an increase in liver triglyceride contents was not recognized. Necrosis of liver cells or fat accumulation in the liver was not observed histologically. The accumulation of acetaldehyde in the liver is apparently not a causal and promoting factor of alcoholic liver injury but lowering of liver aldehyde dehydrogenase activity occurs as a result of liver injury.

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