ASSOCIATION OF RESTRICTION-FRAGMENT-LENGTH-POLYMORPHISMS IN THE ALCOHOL-DEHYDROGENASE-2 GENE WITH ALCOHOLIC BRAIN ATROPHY

Alcohol abuse can induce brain atrophy, but it only occurs in some alc oholics, To investigate whether genetic polymorphism of alcohol-metabo lizing enzymes [including alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde deh ydrogenase (ALDH)] was related to alcoholic brain atrophy, we determin ed restriction fragment-length polymorphisms of the ADH2 and ALDH2 gen es in 77 male alcoholics, Computed tomography was used to determine th e severity of brain atrophy. Digestion with MaeIII and MboIII after po lymerase chain reaction amplification showed that the ADH2(1) gene fre quency was significantly higher in patients with brain atrophy than in those without brain atrophy (chi(2) = 9.274, p < 0.01), whereas no si gnificant association was observed between brain atrophy and the ALDH2 gene. Multivariate analysis (including age, total alcohol intake, liv er cirrhosis, and ADH2 genotype) showed that the ADH2(1)/ADH2(1) genot ype was associated with alcoholic brain atrophy. These findings sugges t that the ADH2(1) allele may be associated with alcoholic brain atrop hy.