Pyrazole sensitive and pyrazole insensitive-alcohol dehydrogenase activities in biopsied livers of patients with alcoholic liver disease.

The correlation of alcoholic liver disease in relation to alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) isozyme activity, serum enzyme activity and drinking patterns was studied statistically and the following conclusions were obtained:1) Total liver ADH (T-ADH) activity was related with a condition of liver disease; the more progressive the lesion, the lower the T-ADH activity. The T-ADH activity was significantly reduced in the cirrhotic liver. The reduction in the T-ADH activity was due to the reduced activity of pyrazole sensitive-ADH (PS-ADH).2) An increase of several serum-enzyme activities was shown in only the cases with decreased liver PS-ADH activity. Therefore, a correlation between the decrease of the PS-ADH activity and the liver damage was recognized by the serum-enzyme activities. The patient with the cirrhotic liver showed the low activities of both the serum-enzymes and PS-ADH of the liver, suggesting that a reduction in activities of both the serum-enzymes and the liver PS-ADH gives a probable indication of the alcoholic liver cirrhosis.3) Liver PS-ADH activity was shown to decrease with the increase of daily alcohol intake. On the other hand, the increase of total alcohol intake, daily alcohol intake and the drinking period was shown to be related with the increase of liver pyrazole insensitive-ADH (PI-ADH). This suggests that PI-ADH plays a main role in the metabolism of alcohol of the patient suffering from alcoholic liver disease.4) Liver cirrhosis was significantly seen in the group where the T-ADH activity was low and the ratio of PI-ADH activity to T-ADH activity was high. This suggested that the increase in the ratio of the PI-ADH activity to T-ADH activity was related with cirrhogenesis.