Acute and chronic effect of ethanol on hepatic albumin synthesis in rat liver in vitro.

To study the effects of ethanol and its metabolite on albumin metabolism, we examined the hepatic albumin synthesis and secretion in male Wistar rats in vitro, following acute and chronic ethanol administration. After acute ethanol administration, proalbumin synthesis in rat liver in vitro, declined to 47% of the control level at 4 hrs, the lowest level, and increased thereafter to slightly higher than the control level at 16 hrs. On the other hand, chronic ethanol administration for 4 weeks, increased proalbumin synthesis to 1.5 times that of the control level. In the acute ethanol group, a significant negative correlation was observed between proalbumin radioactivity and the concentration of hepatic ethanol and acetaldehyde. The variation between proalbumin radioactivity and hepatic ethanol concentration was wider than the variation between proalbumin and hepatic acetaldehyde. In the chronic ethanol group, ethanol was not detected in the liver. No significant differences from the proalbumin/albumin ratio were seen at any time point after acute or chronic ethanol administration. These findings suggest that the effects of ethanol on hepatic albumin synthesis differ with the method of ethanol administration, and acetaldehyde and/or ethanol is involved in the reduction in albumin synthesis, however, proalbumin-albumin conversion is not disturbed.