Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, Vol 50, Issue 3 B135-B141, Copyright © 1995 by The Gerontological Society of America
Ethanol metabolism and aging: the role of "first pass metabolism" and gastric alcohol dehydrogenase activity
G Pozzato, M Moretti, F Franzin, LS Croce, T Lacchin, G Benedetti, R Sablich, M Stebel and L Campanacci
Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Trieste School of Medicine, Italy.
To investigate the effect of age and gender on ethanol metabolism,
first-pass metabolism (FPM) and gastric alcohol-dehydrogenase (ADH)
activity were compared in 32 elderly and 30 young adult nonalcoholic
subjects. The FPM was obtained from the difference between the area under
the curve of ethanol blood concentration after intravenous or oral
administration of ethanol 0.3 g/Kg b.w. The ADH activity was determined in
samples of gastric mucosa obtained during diagnostic endoscopy. In the
young adult group the FPM was higher in men than in women (3.3 +/- 2.3 vs
1.2 +/- 0.9 mmol/l/h, respectively, p < .01). In aged subjects FPM was
found to be very low for men (1.1 +/- 0.8 mmol/l/h, p < .001);
conversely, FPM was not significantly reduced in women (1.7 +/- 0.8
mmol/l/h, p = n.s.). The gastric ADH activity was significantly (p <
.01) higher in young adult men than women, whereas in aged subjects the
activities were low (p < .0001) in both sexes. Thus, gender-related FPM
differences equalize in the elderly or are even reversed, most likely
because of gastric mucosal atrophy, which occurs more in men than women.
