Psychosomatic Medicine 28:424-430 (1966)
© 1966 American Psychosomatic Society

Interrelationship of Alcohol and Lipid Metabolism in the Liver

¹ Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the Medical Services (Gastrointestinal Unit), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.

Alcohol ingestion produces changes in blood lipids as well as changes in liver lipids. The administration of alcohol to human subjects as well as to the experimental animal produces increases in plasma triglycerides, followed at later stages by increases in serum fatty acids which seem to be derived primarily from adipose tissue. In the liver, a lipid accumulation develops which involves the participation of four reactions: (1.) an increased supply of fatty acids; (2.) decreased oxidation of fatty acids; (3.) an increased esterification of fatty acids to triglycerides; and (4.) a decreased release of triglycerides into the plasma at very high alcohol concentrations. These various mechanisms are discussed in some detail.