Acute ethanol ingestion by humans and subacute treatment of rats increase urinary folate excretion.
Previous studies with rats showed that acute treatment with ethanol (4 g/kg) produce a marked increase in urinary folate levels, followed by a decrease in plasma folate levels. Analogous studies with human volunteer subjects using a lower dose of ethanol showed that there were small, but statistically significant increases in urinary folate levels after four hours. The initial ethanol dose was 1.0 g/kg with a single supplement of 0.1-0.2 g/kg to maintain ethanol blood levels at about 100 mg/dl for six hours. Further studies with rats were designed to test the cumulative effects of repeated daily doses of ethanol. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated for 1, 2, 3, or 4 days either with ethanol orally in 4 doses of 1 g/kg each at 0, 1, 2, and 3 hours or with glucose orally in 4 isocaloric doses. Urine was collected at timed intervals up to 12 hours after each daily dose. The pattern of the increase in urinary folate levels was similar in all groups, whether treated for 1, 2, 3 or 4 days. These results suggest that repeated ethanol treatment can lead to a marked cumulative folate loss via increased urinary excretion and that increased urinary folate excretion may contribute to the development of folate deficiency in humans.
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000652:urine; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013997:Time Factors
D000431:Ethanol; D005492:Folic Acid