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Prevalence of Low Monoamine Oxidase Function in Alcoholism
Author(s) -
Faraj Bahjat A.,
Lenton John D.,
Kutner Michael,
Camp Ver M.,
Stammers Thomas W.,
Lee S. Reaves,
Lolies Pat A.,
Chandora Deen
Publication year - 1987
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.1530-0277.1987.tb01924.x
Subject(s) - abstinence , monoamine oxidase , medicine , tyramine , percentile , chronic alcoholism , platelet , chronic alcoholic , endocrinology , monoamine oxidase a , enzyme assay , psychology , enzyme , chemistry , psychiatry , biochemistry , statistics , mathematics
Several studies have found a trend for low platelet monoamine oxidase activity (MAO) in alcoholism but with a great deal of overlap in MAO activity of alcoholics versus controls. The main objective of this study was to carry out a detailed assessment of MAO function that included the measurement of key kinetic parameters (i.e., K m , V max ) in three groups of male subjects: (a) 51 hospitalized chronic alcoholics, (b) 16 recovering alcoholics with 2–10 years of abstinence, and (c) 21 controls. MAO activity was assayed radio‐chemically with [14 C ]tyramine as substrate (43–729 μM). The present study demonstrated that alcoholics had low platelet MAO activity (p < 0.05). Kinetic analysis revealed a substantial reduction (p < 0.01) in enzyme V max values of chronic and recovering alcoholics. Greater than 95% of the alcoholics had V max values lower than the smallest value of control subjects. Moreover, 100% of the alcoholics in both groups exhibited exceedingly low V max values that were below the 25th percentile of controls. In summary, results of MAO V max determinations provided us with a better separation of the alcoholics from controls. Measurements of platelet MAO function that include enzyme V max may provide us a reliable biochemical marker for alcoholism.