1996 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Alcohol metabolism in women and hormonal changes.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	07670487
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Legal medicine
Research Institution	Mie University
Principal Investigator	FUKUNAGA Tatsushige Faculty of Medicine, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (70156800)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	YAMAMOTO Hidetaka Mie University, Faculty of Medicine, Research Associate, 医学部, 助手 (90158296) TANEGASHIMA Akio Mie University, Faculty of Medicine, Assistant Professor, 医学部, 講師 (70283520)
Project Period (FY)	1995 – 1996
Keywords	Alcohol / Acetaldehyde / Polymorphism / Alcohol dehydrogenase / Aldehyde dehydrogenase / Gender differences / Estrogen / Testosterone
Research Abstract	Alcohol is more often unpleasant and causes tissue damage more rapidly in women than men. The present study was designed to find out whether acetaldehyde, the first metabolite of alcohol, could play a crucial role in these actions. Alcohol (dose : 0.1g/kg) was orally taken by healthy Jpanese female subjects in two different stages of menstrual cycle. These data were compared with those of Caucasians. Blood acetaldehyde levels were influenced by the genotype of aldehyde dehydrogenase 2, but not alcohol dehydrogenase 2. An association between elevated acetaldehyde levels and high-estrogen phases was observed. Estrogen related acetaldehyde elevation is suggested to be the key factor explaining the gender differences regarding the adverse effects of alcohol.

(2 results)