Exploring Alcohol’s Effects on Liver Function

N association between Liver disease and heavy alcoholconsumption was recognizedmore than 200 years ago (Smart andMann 1992). Long-term heavy alco-hol use is the most prevalent singlecause of illness and death from liverdisease in the United States (NationalCenter for Health Statistics 1994).The Liver is particularly susceptible toalcohol-related injury because it is theprimary site of alcohol alcohol is broken down in theliver, a number of potentially danger-ous by-products are generated, such asacetaldehyde and highly reactivemolecules called free radicals. Per-haps more so than alcohol itself, theseproducts contribute to alcohol-inducedliver Liver is one of the largest or-gans in the body; it has not only con-siderable reserves but also the abilityto regenerate itself. Consequently,symptoms of Liver damage may notappear until damage to the organ isquite extensive. Epidemiologicalstudies suggest that a threshold doseof alcohol must be consumed forserious Liver injury to become appar-ent (Mezey et al.)

a family of proteins called cytochromes. Some cytochromes, located in a cellu-lar substructure called the endoplas-mic reticulum (see figure in glossary, pp. 93–96), detoxify harmful sub-stances that enter the body. The MEOS oxidizes alcohol to acetalde-hyde by means of a cytochrome called P450 2E1, or CYP2E1, which is found

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  Liver, Cytochromes, P450

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