ETHANOL-METABOLISM AND AGING - THE ROLE OF FIRST-PASS-METABOLISM AND GASTRIC ALCOHOL-DEHYDROGENASE ACTIVITY

To investigate the effect of age and gender on ethanol metabolism, fir st-pass metabolism (FPM) and gastric alcohol-dehydrogenase (ADH) activ ity were compared in 32 elderly and 30 young adult nonalcoholic subjec ts. The FPM was obtained from the difference between the area under th e curve of ethanol blood concentration after intravenous or oral admin istration of ethanol 0.3 g/Kg b.w. The ADH activity was determined in samples of gastric mucosa obtained during diagnostic endoscopy. In the young adult group the PM was higher in men than in women (3.3 +/- 2.3 vs 1.2 +/- 0.9 mmol/l/h, respectively, p<.01). In aged subjects FPM w as found to be very low for men (1.1 +/- 0.8 mmol/l/h, p<.001); conver sely, FPM was not significantly reduced in women (1.7 +/- 0.8 mmol/l/h , p=n.s.). The gastric ADH activity was significantly (p<.01) higher i n young adult men than women, whereas in aged subjects the activities were low (p<.0001) in both sexes. Thus, gender-related FPM differences equalize in the elderly or are even reversed, most likely because of gastric mucosal atrophy, which occurs more in men than women.