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A study of possible factors influencing the variation in liver alcohol dehydrogenase activity in individuals of the ‘usual’ ADH phenotype
Author(s) -
AZEVÊDO ELIANE,
SMITH MOYRA,
HOPKINSON D. A.,
HARRIS HARRY
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
annals of human genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.537
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1469-1809
pISSN - 0003-4800
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-1809.1974.tb01990.x
Subject(s) - autopsy , alcohol dehydrogenase , phenotype , physiology , cause of death , biology , medicine , alcohol , endocrinology , gene , disease , genetics , biochemistry
SUMMARY1 The influence of five factors (cause of death, age at death, sex, ADH 3 phenotype and time between death and autopsy) on the total levels of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity exhibited by crude extracts of human post‐mortem liver specimens in a series of 954 adult individuals have been examined. 2 The cause of death was found to be the most important factor: livers from patients dying from a sudden traumatic accident or illness of acute onset showed, on average, two or three times more ADH activity than the livers from patients dying of a chronic illness or cancer. 3 Age at death and sex appeared to have only small effects on total liver ADH activity: in general, samples from young adults showed slightly higher levels than samples from old people and males gave slightly more activity than females. 4 Liver ADH activity was not markedly influenced by ADH 3 phenotype. 5 Delays of up to 10 days between death and autopsy seemed to exert little influence on the ADH activity of post‐mortem liver specimens.