ALCOHOL ELIMINATION IN NATIVE-AMERICAN MISSION INDIANS - AN INVESTIGATION OF INTERINDIVIDUAL VARIATION

The high prevalence of alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence among Nati ve Americans may be mediated by unique environmental and genetic facto rs in this population. One factor that may influence the development o f alcoholism is variability in alcohol metabolism. To determine factor s that contribute to differences in alcohol elimination rates within a Native American population, this study evaluated healthy southern Cal ifornia Mission Indian men between the ages of 18 and 25 years. Each m an drank a dose of alcohol, 0.56 g/kg of body weight as a 20% by volum e solution, at similar to 9:00 AM after eating a low-fat breakfast and having fasted overnight. The drink was consumed within 7 min, and the concentrations of alcohol in blood were determined before and at 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 min after beverage ingestion. Rates of alcoho l elimination were calculated from the pseudolinear slope of the blood alcohol versus time curve. The influences of estimated body water, re cent drinking history, recent smoking history, polymorphism at the ADH 2 and ADH3 loci, family history of alcoholism, and percentage Native A merican heritage on alcohol elimination rate were determined using mul tiple regression analyses. Estimated body water accounted for a signif icant proportion of the variance in alcohol elimination rate. There wa s also a nonsignificant trend for subjects with an ADH23 allele (n = 6) to have faster rates of alcohol elimination than those with ADH21 alleles only (0 = 33). Given the high prevalence of alcoholism and alc ohol-related health problems among Native Americans, the results from this study suggest that evaluation of alcohol metabolism and genotypes of the alcohol-metabolizing enzymes in Native American populations me rits further study.