1997 Volume 43 Issue 6 Pages 613-626
Five-week-old male mice, C3H/HeNCrj (C3H/He), were given a 5 % (v/v) ethanol solution, commercial alcoholic beverages (Japanese sake (sake) or red wine) or a Japanese seasoning (mirin [con-taining ethanol and a large amount of glucose]) ad libitum for 45 d, and were then examined for changes in the hepatic enzymes related to eth-anol metabolism 2 h after oral administration of 5 g of ethanol/kg body weight. The specific activity of aniline hydroxylase (ANH) in the hepatic microsome increased significantly in all groups chronically administered ethanol solution, sake, red wine or mirin, and the greatest increase was in the hepatic microsome of mirin-administered mice. The cytochrome P-450 (CYP) 2E1 increased in the hepatic microsome of the mice administered ethanol solution, red wine or mirin where accompanied by high ANH activity. The immunoreactive band for CYP 1 A 1 showed high specificity in the microsome of mice given sake, red wine or mirin. It was assumed that CYP 1 A 1 was induced by unknown component(s) other than ethanol in these solutions. In the cytosolic fraction, following the chronic administration of sake and mirin, the total aldehyde dehy-drogenase (AlDH) activity with high-Km decreased significantly. In the mitochondrial fraction, the activity of high-Km AlDH increased sig-nificantly in the mirin-administered mice which drank a large amount of ethanol, whereas that in the red wine-administered group tended to decrease. These results indicate that the enzyme activities related to the oxidation of both ethanol and acetaldehyde in the cytosolic, mitochondrial and microsomal fractions of the liver were affected by either the action of ethanol or its interaction with other constituents of sake, red wine and mirin.
