Chronic consumption of alcohol and its damaging effects on the body

Abstract

It is widely accepted that alcohol metabolism passes through different mechanisms: alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity in stomach epithelial cells, activity of ADH in the liver, microsomal-ethanol-oxydizing system (MEOS), hepatocyte catalase activity, and nonoxydizing metabolic pathway (production of fatty acid ethylesters). Alcohol causes numerous direct and indirect toxic effects on human organism. The first are directed to epithelial cells of stomach and liver cells, as well as the generation of excessive amounts of metabolites: NADH, acetaldehyde and acetate. These amounts of NADH lead to hyperlactacidaemia, hypoalbuminaemia and fat infiltration to the liver. The activity of MEOS causes drug metabolism changes in the liver and increased rate of hepatotoxic and cancerous substances. Acetaldehyde increases lipid peroxidation, immunity disorders, decrease in enzymatic activities and restoration of nucleoproteins, while acetate decreases lipolitic processes in cells.