BINGE VERSUS STEADY DRINKING - EFFECTS ON THE LIVER IN THE OVARIECTOMIZED RAT

Substantial interest exists as to whether or not differential effects in liver injury based on the pattern of alcohol intake exist; and furt her, if they do, are they simply a function of the total dose over tim e. A rat model in which ethanol (ETOH) at doses of 12%, 24%, or 36% of total calories was isocalorically administered for 4 months either da ily or intermittently (4 days of ETOH, 3 days of control diet, repeate dly) was used to assess this question. There were significant differen ces in the two feeding pattern groups between 36% ETOH rats for the li ver weight corrected for body weight, the fat infiltration score, the total amount of ETOH consumed/mg body weight, the proportion of animal s with a fat infiltration score >2, and albumin levels. There was a si gnificant difference between 12% ETOH rats for the liver weight correc ted for body weight. Of particular relevance is the comparison to be m ade between Daily 12% ETOH and Binge 24% ETOH animals, because these t wo groups consumed an identical total amount of ETOH/mg body weight (D aily: 445 +/- 5 vs. Binge: 468 +/- 15) and thus these animals are comp arable in terms of ETOH dose over time but different in terms of the p attern of ETOH exposure. There were no differences in the liver/body r atio (Daily: 235 +/- 6 vs. Binge: 232 +/- 4), fat infiltration score ( Daily: 2.5 +/- 4 vs. Binge: 2.4 +/-0.3), the proportion of animals wit h a fat infiltration score >2 (Daily: 5/10 vs. Binge: 4/8), or albumin levels (Daily: 3.0 +/- 0.1 vs. Binge: 3.1 +/- 0.1). These data, in ad dition to the findings of greater injury in both the 12% and 36% ETOH daily-fed animals, suggest that it is the cumulative amount, not the p attern of ETOH intake, that determines the liver injury.