HIGH BLOOD ENDOTOXIN DOES NOT AFFECT ETHANOL ELIMINATION IN RATS

Gut-derived endotoxins have been proposed as mediators of theenhancement of ethanol elimination after chronic alcohol administration.We investigated whether chronically elevated blood-endotoxinlevels affect the rate of ethanol elimination in a study whereendotoxin was administered chronically from an osmotic minipumpto rats fed ethanol in a liquid diet. As expected, an acutedose of ethanol (1.2 g/kg body wt, i.p.) was eliminated significantlyfaster (329±11 mg/kg/h) by chronically ethanol-fed animalsthan by pair-fed controls (285 ± 9 mg/kg/h). However,although endotoxin administration significantly elevated blood-endotoxinlevels, the rate of ethanol elimination in endotoxin-treatedgroups was almost identical when compared either to controls(289 vs 285) or to ethanol-fed rats (328 vs 329). We concludethat chronic endotoxin exposure at levels that only resultedin mild hepatic changes, had no effect on the rate of ethanolelimination and that it is unlikely that endotoxins are involvedin the induction of the ethanol elimination rate following chronicalcohol administration.