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Human Blood Acetaldehyde Levels: With Improved Methods, a Clearer Picture Emerges
Author(s) -
Lindros Kai O.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1983.tb05414.x
Subject(s) - acetaldehyde , aldehyde dehydrogenase , aldh2 , alcohol dehydrogenase , ethanol , abstinence , alcohol , ingestion , isozyme , chemistry , medicine , endocrinology , physiology , biochemistry , enzyme , psychiatry
New reliable methods for the determination of acetaldehyde in human blood, either from separated plasma or from acidprecipitated whole blood, demonstrate that the blood of healthy Caucasians contains at most only extremely small amounts of acetaldehyde (>1 μM) after moderate alcohol intoxication. On the other hand, among about 50% of the Japanese population ethanol ingestion results in elevated blood acetaldehyde levels (10–50 μM) with consequent unpleasant cardiovascular responses such as facial flushing and tachycardia, apparently because of a lack of one of the acetaldehyde‐oxidizing aldehyde dehydrogenase isozymes. Elevated acetaldehyde levels may eventually occur also among intoxicated Caucasian alcoholics, primarily as a consequence of abuse‐induced loss of hepatic aldehyde dehydrogenase activity, but accentuated by an accelerated ethanol oxidation rate. The elevation is probably reversible, since no acetaldehyde IS seen In alcoholics after abstinence and hospital treatment. There is thus little evidence that an elevation of acetaldehyde could serve as a marker for predisposition for alcoholism.