GENOTYPES OF ALCOHOL-METABOLIZING ENZYMES IN MEXICANS WITH ALCOHOLIC LIVER-CIRRHOSIS

With the use of the polymerase chain reaction (FCR), we investigated t he frequency of the typical and atypical genes of the alcohol dehydrog enase 2 (ADH(2)) and aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH(2)) loci, in a gro up of patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis and two comparison group s. Contrary to what has been found in the Japanese population, there w as no difference in the frequencies of these genes in the groups inves tigated, and we conclude that in Mexicans, the particular mutation of the ALDH, locus which ''protects'' Orientals from alcoholic hepatic di seases, by making them very susceptible to alcohol and therefore disco uraging its ingestion, is not present.