Abstract
PURPOSE: Women appear to be more vulnerable to developing alcoholic liver disease
than men. In rats, we previously found that the response of certain pathways of fatty
acid metabolism to alcohol feeding was less efficient in females than in males, resulting
in striking accumulation of fatty acids in the liver of the female rats. We sought
to determine whether similar differences occurred in humans.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Urinary excretion of medium chain (C6-C10) dicarboxylic acids
(final products of fatty acid ω-oxidation) was determined in 40 recently drinking
alcoholic subjects (24 men and 16 women) and 21 nonalcoholic subjects (12 men and
nine women). Sebacic (C10), suberic (C8), and adipic (C6) acids were measured in urine
by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and their excretion was expressed per mg
of creatinine.
RESULTS: In nonalcoholic subjects, there was no gender difference in dicarboxylic
aciduria. By contrast, alcoholic men (but not alcoholic women) developed dicarboxylic
hyperaciduria. Alcoholic men had a marked increase in adipic acid excretion and in
the adipic/sebacic (C6/C10) ratio (an index of peroxisomal β-oxidation), whereas the
values in alcoholic women did not differ from those in nonalcoholic women.
CONCLUSIONS: The lack of response in alcoholic women could contribute to an aggravation
of liver injury by promoting deleterious accumulation of fatty acids.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 16, 2004
Accepted:
August 19,
1998
Received in revised form:
August 19,
1998
Received:
November 20,
1997
Footnotes
☆Supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institute of Health Grant AA 05934.
Identification
Copyright
© 1999 Excerpta Medica Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
