title: Acute and chronic effects of ethanol on secretion of alpha-tocopherol from primary cultures of rat hepatocytes.
abstract: Primary cultures of rat hepatocytes were used to study the effect of acute and chronic ethanol exposure on alpha-tocopherol content in cells and media. Cells treated acutely with 60 mM ethanol secreted 74.5 +/- 18.0% (P less than 0.05), and their cellular alpha-tocopherol content was 85.7 +/- 15.4% (not significant) of controls after 20 h incubation. At this time total recovery of alpha-tocopherol was significantly reduced in ethanol-exposed cells (43.1 +/- 8.4%) as compared to control cells (52.8 +/- 5.0%, P less than 0.05). Hepatocytes isolated from chronic ethanol-fed rats (35% of total energy intake as ethanol for 5 weeks) secreted 41.9 +/- 12.7% less alpha-tocopherol than did cells of pair-fed controls during 20 h incubation (P less than 0.05). The amount of alpha-tocopherol secreted was then 15.6 +/- 4.2 and 19.8 +/- 3.8% of cell-associated alpha-tocopherol at start of incubation for chronic ethanol-fed and control rats, respectively (P less than 0.05). When 60 mM ethanol was added to the incubation medium, hepatocytes of control rats secreted significantly less alpha-tocopherol (about 30%, P less than 0.05), whereas alpha-tocopherol secretion was not significantly reduced in hepatocytes of chronic ethanol-fed rats. We conclude that both acute and chronic ethanol exposure reduce alpha-tocopherol secretion from rat hepatocytes.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Forensic Toxicology, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bjørneboe
authors.forename: G E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Bjørneboe
authors.forename: B F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Hagen
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Drevon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003078:Colchicine / Q000494:pharmacology; D004032:Diet; D015118:Eicosapentaenoic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008099:Liver / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008985:Monensin / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D014810:Vitamin E / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014810:Vitamin E; D000431:Ethanol; D008985:Monensin; D015118:Eicosapentaenoic Acid; D003078:Colchicine