CHRONIC ETHANOL CONSUMPTION AMELIORATES THE MATURITY-ONSET DIABETES-OBESITY SYNDROME IN CBA MICE

The effects of a chronic ethanol drinking schedule (20% solutionfor 6 weeks) on energy balance and carbohydrate and lipid metabolismhave been investigated in lean (32–36 g) and obesediabetic(40–44 g) CBA/Ca mice. The untreated obesediabetic miceexhibited hyperglycaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, hyper-insulinaemiaand insulin resistance. The chronic ethanol treatment, whichyielded plasma ethanol levels of between 1 and 11 mM, loweredthe blood glucose, plasma insulin and tnacylglycerol levelstowards normal in the obese mice, but did not affect these parametersin the lean mice. The body weight of the obese mice tended toreturn to normal during the 6-week drinking period, althoughtheir total energy intake (9.2–10.0 kJ/g/week, food plusethanol-denved calories) was almost double that of the leanmice (4.8–5.4 kJ/g/week). The blood glucose response toacute insulin injection, which was significantly reduced inthe obese mice, became indistinguishable from the response ofnormal mice after chronic ethanol treatment. Soleus muscle glycogensynthesis in both lean and obese mice was not significantlyaltered by ethanol drinking, but brown adipose tissue lipogenesiswas significantly increased (by 50%) in the obese mice. It isproposed that ethanol is acting chronically to restore insulinsensitivity in the obese diabetic mice at doses which have littleor no effect in normal lean animals. This action is exerted,at least in part, at the level of brown adipose tissue lipogenesis.