Alcohol-Induced Cell Injury

Selver Ozekinci (Author)
Professor, Dicle University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0645-8755
3Alcohol is used as a solvent in chemical products and to increase solubility in pharmacology, but it continues to be a problem as the most accepted addictive drug in the world for centuries. Alcohol is rapidly absorbed from the stomach and intestinal tract through the bloodstream and is taken into cells by passive diffusion through the cell membrane. It is metabolized to acetate by alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme systems in the liver. Alcoholic liver disease includes steatosis, steohepatitis, alcoholic hepatitis, alcoholic cirrhosis and alcoholic foamy degeneration. In alcohol-mediated chronic liver injury, the brain and other organs are more exposed to the toxic effects of acetaldehyde because of inadequate detoxification of ethanol. Ethanol causes direct metabolic and toxic damage to neurons and glial cells. Myocardial cells show edema, lipid accumulation, degeneration of fibrils, disorganization of bundles, lymphocyte infiltration and fibrosis. Alcohol consumption leads to alterations in the gut microbiota, reducing beneficial bacterial populations and triggering dysbiosis. The spectrum of adverse effects of intrauterine exposure to ethanol in the fetus is broad. Although oxidative stress is known to underlie the adverse effects in the cell, the pathogenesis of alcohol toxicity has not been clearly elucidated.