title: Chronic Alcohol Consumption Results in Greater Damage to the Pancreas Than to the Liver in the Rats.
abstract: Alcohol consumption increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. However, its effects on prediabetes or early diabetes have not been studied. We investigated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the pancreas and liver resulting from chronic alcohol consumption in the prediabetes and early stages of diabetes. We separated Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats, a type-2 diabetic animal model, into two groups based on diabetic stage: prediabetes and early diabetes were defined as occurrence between the ages of 11 to 16 weeks and 17 to 22 weeks, respectively. The experimental group received an ethanol-containing liquid diet for 6 weeks. An intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test was conducted after 16 and 22 weeks for the prediabetic and early diabetes groups, respectively. There were no significant differences in body weight between the control and ethanol groups. Fasting and 120-min glucose levels were lower and higher, respectively, in the ethanol group than in the control group. In prediabetes rats, alcohol induced significant expression of ER stress markers in the pancreas; however, alcohol did not affect the liver. In early diabetes rats, alcohol significantly increased most ER stress-marker levels in both the pancreas and liver. These results indicate that chronic alcohol consumption increased the risk of diabetes in prediabetic and early diabetic OLETF rats; the pancreas was more susceptible to damage than was the liver in the early diabetic stages, and the adaptive and proapoptotic pathway of ER stress may play key roles in the development and progression of diabetes affected by chronic alcohol ingestion.
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Bucheon St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon 420-717, Korea.
authors.forename: Seong-Su
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Bucheon St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon 420-717, Korea.
authors.forename: Oak-Kee
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany DFG Center for Nanoscale Microscopy & Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CNMPB), Göttingen 37075, Germany.
authors.forename: Anes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ju
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Myung-Jun
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Structural and Functional Genomics, Center for Genome Science, National Institute of Health, Cheongju 361-951, Korea.
authors.forename: Bong-Jo
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Bucheon St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon 420-717, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Rae
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Metabolic Disease, Center for Biomedical Sicence, National Institutes of Health, Cheongju 361-951, Korea.
authors.forename: Won-Ho
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department in Preventive Medicine, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon 443-749, Korea.
authors.forename: Nam-Han
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Moo-Il
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Bucheon 420-767, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Koo
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Dai-Jin
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Bucheon St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon 420-717, Korea.
authors.forename: Soon-Jib
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Yoo
keywords: Alcohol; Endoplasmic reticulum stress; OLETF rat