Biomedical subjects

H Kalant

Publications and source records attributed to H Kalant.

At least 199 records · Page 11Linked to original sources

PubMed1975

Experimental alcohol-induced hepatic necrosis: suppression by propylthiouracil.

We have previously reported that a hypermetabolic state, resembling that produced by thryoid hormones, exists in the livers of animals treated chronically with ethanol. We propose that this alteration produces a relative hypoxia in the centrilobular zone of the liver which, if severe enough, leads to cellular death and to the production of hepatitis. Rats consuming ethanol for 30 days, given with a nutritionally adequate diet, and exposed to reduced oxygen tensions for only 6 hr, developed histological and biochemical evidence of hepatocellular necrosis and inflammatory lesions confined to the centrilobular zone. The severity was proportional to the degree of hypoxia. Pair-fed (nonalcohol) controls showed no such lesions. Treatment of the animals with propylthiouracil for 3-10 days abolished the hypermetabolic state of the liver in ethanol-consuming animals, and drastically reduced the histological and biochemical effects of hypoxia in them. These findings may have implications for pathogenesis and treatment of alcoholic hepatitis in man.

Animals↗

PubMed1975

Effect of chronic intake of ethanol on lactate/pyruvate and beta-hydroxybutyrate/acetoacetate ratios in rat liver.

Adult male rats were fed a liquid diet providing 35% of the calories as ethanol, while pair-fed controls received the corresponding diet with alcohol replaced by an equicaloric concentration of sucrose. After 1 month, lactate/pyruvate (L/P) and beta-hydroxybutyrate/acetoacetate (beta-HB/AcAc) ratios in the livers were determined under five different conditions: (1) both diets present up to the time of sacrifice, (2) ethanol diet replaced by control diet for 24 h before sacrifice, (3) ethanol diet replaced by control diet for 48 h before sacrifice, (4) as in the preceding, followed by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of ethanol, 1 g/kg, 1 h before sacrifice, (5) as in the preceding, but i.p. injection 3 h before sacrifice. The L/P ratio was significantly higher in the alcohol group than in controls under the first experimental condition, but the groups did not differ under the other four conditions. The beta-HB/AcAc ratio was also significantly higher in the alcohol group under the first condition. This difference disappeared in the second and third conditions. Under the fourth and fifth conditions the beta-HB/AcAc ratio was significantly higher in the controls. The results are compatible with an adaptive increase in mitochondrial reoxidation of NADH in the chronic alcohol groups, but the possibility of a change due to alcohol withdrawal can not be excluded.

Acetoacetates↗

PubMed1975

Effect of pyrazole on ethanol metabolism in ethanol-tolerant rats.

Adult male rats were pair-fed liquid diets, providing 37% of calories as ethanol or sucrose, for 1 month. Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity in the cytosol fractions of liver homogenates from the two groups did not differ with respect to total activity per 100 g body weight, Km for ethanol, or Ki for pyrazole. Other rats, fed in the same way, were fasted for 18-24 H, then given an intraperitoneal injection of pyrazole followed 1 h later by an injection of ethanol, 3g/kg. Blood alcohol curves showed an unexplained slower rise to maximum level in the chronic alcohol group. Both groups showed a period of several hours in which the blood alcohol stayed at the respective maximum concentrations, which were higher in the control group. After 7-8h the alcohol concentration began to fall in both groups, significantly more rapidly in the chronic alcohol-fed animals. A kinetic analysis shows that the results are adequately explained by the known effects of pyrazole on the ADH-mitochondrial system. The results are interpreted as evidence against the function of any microsomal ethanol oxidizing system in vivo.

Alcohol Oxidoreductases↗

PubMed1975

Direct effects of ethanol on the nervous system.

Neurophysiological, neurochemical and behavioral studies of the effects of ethanol on the nervous system have so far failed to identify specific, direct, primary mechnisms of action that may account for the typical pattern of alcohol intoxication in vivo. Electroencephalogram and evoked response studies indicate biphasic effects in the intact subject, which may correlate better with the level of arousal than with a specific drug action. Effects on spinal reflexes are also biphasic, probably representing the net result of direct influence on resting membrane potential, primary afferent depolarization, and neurotransmitter release. With the exception of its inhibitory effect on release of oxytocin, vasopressin and possibly other hypothalamic peptides, ethanol does not appear notably different in its spectrum of effects from a wide range of other hypnotics, anesthetics and minor tranquilizers. Interpretation of the findings is complicated by the fact that functional alteration of any given neuronal system by ethanol in vivo may reflect a) direct local action of ethanol on the cells under study, b) change in the input to those cells because of an action elsewhere in the nervous system, c) effects of ethanol metabolites, or d) indirect consequences of decreased blood flow, oxygen or metabolite supply, hormonal action, or hypothermia, due to disturbances of homeostasis in the whole body as a result of deep intoxication. To date, attempts to circmvent b, c and d by the study of brain tissue in vitro have shown consistent effects of ethanol only at concentrations well above those that are meaningful in vivo. Relatively specific patterns of action of different drugs in vivo may prove to be largely dependent on their customary rates and routes of administration, and on summation of minor differences in the dose-response curves with different types of neuron, even though the basic types of molecular action may be essentially similar.

Acetylcholine↗

PubMed1974