FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Donna Krupa
703.527.7357 (direct
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703.967.2751 (cell) or
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MEN AND WOMEN DRINKING
EQUAL AMOUNTS OF ALCOHOL HAVE UNEQUAL RISKS
FOR LIVER DAMAGE
Hormones play key role in how much damage the liver incurs
due to chronic alcohol consumption
PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- Ethanol is the active ingredient in all alcoholic
beverages including beer, wine and hard liquor. Ingestion of fermented
beverages containing ethanol has been known since the beginning of recorded
history. Ethanol was first thought to have strong medicinal properties but
now it is acknowledged that chronic consumption of excessive amounts of
alcohol is a major source of social and medical problems.
Researchers have established that chronic ethanol is a
depressant drug that disturbs the normal chemical actions of nerve cells
resulting in reduced efficiency of neural impulse conductance.
Additionally, excessive consumption can lead to various biochemical and
intracellular changes that may cause alcohol–induced liver injury. Men and
women who chronically consume ethanol may have different susceptibility to
the alcohol’s damage to their liver due to altered expression of genes
related to liver function. To test that assumption, University of Pittsburgh
researchers set out to determine sex-specific expression of genes in the
livers of rats chronically fed alcohol.
The authors of the study, “Gender Differences in
Hepatic Gene Expression in Response to Chronic Ethanol Exposure,” are P.K.
Eagon, Ph.D., M.S. Elm, H.S. Li, G.J. Van Londen, D.C. Whitcomb, and S.D.
Tadic, all from the VA Medical Center and the Department of Medicine,
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA. Their findings
are being presented at the upcoming conference, Genomes and Hormones: An
Integrative Approach to Gender Differences in Physiology, being
sponsored by the American Physiological Society (APS), and held October
17-20, 2001, at the Westin Convention Center, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Methodology and Results
Rats were fed diets containing alcohol or alcohol-free
diets for 30 days to induce fatty liver with minimal necrosis and
inflammation. Microarray analysis was performed to determine differences in
gene expression using a toxicology array.
Different gene were expressed in rats consuming alcohol
compared to those which did not and expression of twenty-nine genes were
changed only in male rats; expression of six genes changed only in female
rats, and nine separate genes changed in both males and females. The genes
encode proteins that cover a spectrum of liver cellular functions including
production of protein and immunological responses. Expression of genes
which changed in male rats were also regulated by androgens (the generic
term for the predominating male hormone) While in female rats, genes
affected by alcohol were also changed by the female hormone, estrogen.
Other genes changed in both genders but in opposite
ways. For example, expression of several genes coding for hepatoprotective
proteins were increased in males but decreased in females.
Conclusion
This study suggests a mechanism for sex differences in
alcohol-related injury such that in female animals expression of genes that
offer protection to the liver do not increase to the same extent as in
males. The authors conclude that with long-term heavy use of alcohol, the
inability of females to induce protective mechanisms will place females at
higher risk of liver damage when both genders drink equal amounts of
alcohol.
-end-
The
American Physiological Society (APS) was founded in 1887 to foster basic and
applied science, much of it relating to human health. The Bethesda,
MD-based Society has more than 10,000 members and publishes 3,800 articles
in its 14 peer-reviewed journals every year.
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Editor’s Note: To receive a copy of the abstracts, to interview speakers or
for more information, contact Donna Krupa at 703.527.7357(direct dial),
703.967.2751 (cell) or djkrupa1@aol.com.
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