Interaction of nutrition and binge ethanol treatment on brain damage and withdrawal.
To determine if nutrition plays a role in ethanol withdrawal and alcohol-induced brain damage, the effects of a 4-day ethanol binge treatment using ethanol in a nutritionally complete liquid diet compared to ethanol mixed with water were studied. The nutritionally complete diet group (ETOH-diet) received a complete diet of sugars, proteins and fats with vitamins and minerals with approximately 53% of calories from ethanol while the nutritionally deprived group (ETOH-H2O) received 100% of calories from ethanol. No difference in withdrawal behavior was found between the ETOH-diet and ETOH-H2O groups during the 72-hour period studied. In addition, no difference was seen for serum levels of magnesium and zinc taken at last dose or following 72 h of withdrawal. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and ammonia were increased in both groups with ETOH-diet showing a greater increase in ALT than ETOH-H2O. Both groups showed damage in the olfactory bulb, perirhinal, agranular insular, piriform and lateral entorhinal cortical areas as well as hippocampal dentate gyrus and CA-3. Interestingly, the ETOH-diet group displayed more damage at last dose in the posterior dentate and CA-3 of hippocampus than did the ETOH-H2O group. This study suggests that nutritional components and total caloric intake do not effect behavior during ethanol withdrawal and that a nutritionally complete diet may increase ethanol-induced brain damage.
Crews
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FT
Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, CB #7178, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7178, USA. ftcrews@med.unc.edu
Braun
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CJ
Ali
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Knapp
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D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D000641:Ammonia / Q000097:blood; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D004032:Diet / Q000379:methods; D000431:Ethanol / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008274:Magnesium / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology*; D014867:Water / Q000494:pharmacology; D015032:Zinc / Q000097:blood
D014867:Water; D000431:Ethanol; D000641:Ammonia; D000410:Alanine Transaminase; D008274:Magnesium; D015032:Zinc