Effect of acute ethanol ingestion on fat absorption.

A test meal (300 mg casein, 600 mg sucrose, 100 mg corn oil, tracer dose of 9.10(3)H oleic acid) was given to fasting adult rats with intestinal lymph fistulas. One group received an acute oral dose of ethanol (3.2 g/kg body weight) simultaneously with the test meal. Controls received 2.5 ml of water instead of ethanol. Ingestion of ethanol temporarily delayed the removal of lipid radioactivity from the stomachs. More than 25% of radioactivity fed remained 8 hr after feeding whereas with control rats less than 10% of lipid radioactivity fed remained 6 hr after feeding. In controls and ethanol-treated rats, the amounts of exogenous lipids in the intestinal lumen and mucosa were low and similar enough. Quantities of endogenous and exogenous lipids found in the lymph collected during 24 hr after feeding were similar in the two groups, but the fat absorption peak was found after 6 hr in alcoholic rats and before 6 hr in controls. This delay was probably due to the retention of lipids in the stomach. More of the exogenous lipid was always transported by small particles moving in the region of alpha1 globulins in cellulose acetate electrophoresis than by larger particles remaining at the origin. This proportion was enhanced in the ethanol-treated animals. The larger fat particles were richer in endogenous fatty acids in alcohol-treated rats than in controls.