Acetaldehyde-albumin adduct formation: possible relevance to an immunologic mechanism in alcoholism.

Acetaldehyde (A), an ethanol metabolite, was incubated with rabbit serum albumin (RSA) and human serum albumin (HSA) to form the corresponding soluble haptenized proteins, A-RSA and A-HSA respectively. Both protein adducts showed conjugation with acetaldehyde evidenced by more rapid anodal migration compared to RSA and HSA. A-RSA immunized rabbits produced titers greater than 1:100,000 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Rabbit serum antibodies to A-RSA diluted 1:10,000 showed high specificity for the hapten when reacted with acetaldehyde conjugates of RSA, HSA, bovine serum albumin, bovine gamma globulin and human gamma globulin. Our findings support the possibility that acetaldehyde may serve as a hapten to form neoantigens relevant to an immunologic mechanism which might be associated with alcoholic liver disease.