"Binge" versus steady drinking: effects on the liver in the ovariectomized rat.
Substantial interest exists as to whether or not differential effects in liver injury based on the pattern of alcohol intake exist; and further, if they do, are they simply a function of the total dose over time. A rat model in which ethanol (ETOH) at doses of 12%, 24%, or 36% of total calories was isocalorically administered for 4 months either daily or intermittently (4 days of ETOH, 3 days of control diet, repeatedly) was used to assess this question. There were significant differences in the two feeding pattern groups between 36% ETOH rats for the liver weight corrected for body weight, the fat infiltration score, the total amount of ETOH consumed/mg body weight, the proportion of animals with a fat infiltration score > 2, and albumin levels. There was a significant difference between 12% ETOH rats for the liver weight corrected for body weight. Of particular relevance is the comparison to be made between Daily 12% ETOH and Binge 24% ETOH animals, because these two groups consumed an identical total amount of ETOH/mg body weight (Daily: 445 +/- 5 vs. Binge: 468 +/- 15) and thus these animals are comparable in terms of ETOH dose over time but different in terms of the pattern of ETOH exposure. There were no differences in the liver/body ratio (Daily: 235 +/- 6 vs. Binge: 232 +/- 4), fat infiltration score (Daily: 2.5 +/- 4 vs. Binge: 2.4 +/- 0.3), the proportion of animals with a fat infiltration score > 2 (Daily: 5/10 vs. Binge: 4/8), or albumin levels (Daily: 3.0 +/- 0.1 vs. Binge: 3.1 +/- 0.1.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Gavaler
J S
JS
Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pennsylvania.
Smith
W I
WI
Van Thiel
D H
DH
Rosenblum
E R
ER
Deal
S R
SR
Allan
M J
MJ
D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004967:Estrogens / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008108:Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / Q000473:pathology*; D010052:Ovariectomy; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
D004967:Estrogens