摘要
Background: Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) are principal enzymes responsible for metabolism of ethanol in mammals. The steady-state metabolic flux of ethanol has been poorly understood. Methods: We investigated flux rates of the individual steps of ethanol metabolism in perfused rat livers treated with ALDH inactivator cyanamide as an attempt to mimic human ALDH2*2 and 1.5 mg/kg cyanamide, hepatic activities of mitochondrial ALDH2*2 mM ethanol, acetaldehyde oxidation rate well matched (99%) the net ethanol oxidation rate in control liver. Both the ethanol and acetaldehyde oxidation rates were significantly decreased after cyanamide treatments. At 10 mM ethanol, the efflux acetaldehyde was significantly higher than that infusing 2 mM ethanol in both control and cyanamide groups. Seventy-eight percent of the oxidized ethanol released as efflux acetate. At 2 mM ethanol, the apparent flux control coefficients of ADH1 were assessed to be 0.78, 0.54, and 0.39, respectively, in control, low, and high cyanamide-treated livers. Kinetic simulations revealed that inhibition by acetaldehyde may largely account for the observed reduction of ADH1 oxidation rates after cyanamide treatment. Conclusions: Our results provide the first flux evidence that ADH and ALDH are steps influencing steady-state metabolism of ethanol in rat livers with inactivated ALDHs.