An association of chronic alcohol consumption with morphological alterations of the laryngeal mucosa in rats.
Within the last decades a considerable amount of epidemologic evidence has been built up to implicate chronic alcohol consumption as a major risk factor not only for oral and pharyngeal cancer, but also for laryngeal cancer. The mechanisms that underlie alcohol-related cancers of the larynx have remained largely unclear. Since the epithelium of the glottic region normally has no direct contact with alcoholic beverages, alcohol-related alterations of glottic mucosa have been questioned. In the present study 20 male Wistar rats were fed nutritionally adequate liquid diets containing 36% of the total calories either as ethanol or isocaloric carbohydrates for 6 months. Morphometric analysis of the glottic mucosa in the ethanol-fed rats showed a significant reduction in epithelial thickness of the glottic epithelium of the anterior commissure as well as of the posterior commissure (P < 0.001). Morphometric analysis of the basal cell nuclei of the glottic epithelium did not show any statistically significant differences between ethanol-fed rats and control rats. These findings indicate that chronic ethanol consumption can cause a significant atrophy of the glottic mucosal epithelium in the rat and suggest an enhanced susceptibility toward locally acting chemical carcinogens.
Maier
H
H
Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, German Military Hospital Ulm, Germany.
Tisch
M
M
Schneeberg
E
E
Born
A
A
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications*; D000818:Animals; D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004848:Epithelium / Q000473:pathology; D007820:Laryngeal Mucosa / Q000473:pathology*; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar