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The system most likely responsible for the accelerated metabolism of alcohol with chronic ingestion or at high blood ethanol levels, is the microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system(MEOS). While the increase in the MEOS with chronic ethanol ingestion is thought to be adaptive, it may also have serious adverse effects on the liver. The rates of the NADPH-dependent oxygen consumption by the liver microsomes from the prolonged ethanol fed rats were 2 times higher than the rates from the non-treated rats. With the alcohol ingestion, the total SH and nonprotein SH contents showed the significant decrease and at the same time, MDA in liver and GOT and GPT levels in blood showed the significant increase, which suggests the occurrence of liver damage due to the oxidative stress caused by chronic alcohol consumption. The mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase(ALDH) activity was decreased by chronic ethanol ingestion, whereas the alcohol dehydrogenase activity and the cytosolic ALDH activity were not altered. These results suggest that the induction of cytochrome P450 by the chronic alcohol ingestion increases the oxidative stress which seems to result in the altered the physiological states of the liver including the ALDH activity, which may in turn to lead to the liver disease.
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