|
|
||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1Liver Study Unit, Departments of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha 68198; and 2Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68105; and 3Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
Submitted 14 April 2003 ; accepted in final form 26 August 2003
It has been demonstrated that the oral administration of ethanol (Lieber-DeCarli liquid diet) to rats results in a decreased expression and content of the asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGP-R) in the resultant fatty liver. In the present study, we wanted to determine whether the extent of impaired receptor content was correlated with the severity of liver pathology by using the intragastric feeding model. When ASGP-R protein and mRNA levels were measured in animals infused with ethanol or dextrose in the presence of fish oil (FO) or medium-chain triglyceride as the source of fat, more significant impairments to the ASGP-R were observed in the FO-ethanol group compared with the medium-chain triglyceride-ethanol group. Furthermore, only the FO-ethanol group showed pathological liver changes. These results demonstrate that a correlation exists between the progression of alcohol-associated liver injury, as defined by the severity of liver pathology, and an ethanol-induced decline in ASGP-R content.
receptors; endocytosis; rat diet; alcoholic liver injury
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Visit Other APS Journals Online |