Interaction of nutrition and binge ethanol treatment on brain damage and withdrawal

To determine if nutrition plays a role in ethanol withdrawal and alcohol-in duced brain damage, the effects of a 4-day ethanol binge treatment using et hanol in a nutritionally complete liquid diet compared to ethanol mixed wit h water were studied. The nutritionally complete diet group (ETOH-diet) rec eived a complete diet of sugars, proteins and fats with vitamins and minera ls with approximately 53% of calories from ethanol while the nutritionally deprived group (ETOH-H2O) received 100% of calories from ethanol. No differ ence in withdrawal behavior was found between the ETOH-diet and ETOH-H2O gr oups during the 72-hour period studied. In addition, no difference was seen for serum levels of magnesium and zinc taken at last dose or following 72 h of withdrawal. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and ammonia were incr eased in both groups with ETOH-diet showing a greater increase in ALT than ETOH-H2O. Both groups showed damage in the olfactory bulb, perirhinal, agra nular insular, piriform and lateral entorhinal cortical areas as well as hi ppocampal dentate gyrus and CA-3, Interestingly, the ETOH-diet group displa yed more damage at last dose in the posterior dentate and CA-3 of hippocamp us than did the ETOH-H2O group. This study suggests that nutritional compon ents and total caloric intake do not effect behavior during ethanol withdra wal and that a nutritionally complete diet may increase ethanol-induced bra in damage. Copyright (C) 2001 National Science Council, ROC and S. Karger A G, Basel.