Alterations induced by chronic ethanol treatment on lipid composition of microsomes, mitochondria and myelin from neonatal chick liver and brain.

The effect of 18 days ethanol consumption on the lipid composition of microsomes, mitochondria and myelin have been studied in neonatal chick liver and brain. Neither cholesterol nor phospholipid content was modified in both liver microsomes and mitochondria. However, cholesterol content of brain microsomes, mitochondria and myelin was clearly increased, mainly due to an enhancement of free cholesterol. Likewise, ethanol consumption induced a clear increase of phospholipid content in brain mitochondria and myelin. As a consecuence of these changes, the cholesterol/phospholipid molar ratio strongly increased only in the myelin fraction. The myelin phospholipid composition markedly varied by ethanol treatment. Our results indicate that the maximal modifications were induced by ethanol in membranes with a high cholesterol content, suggesting that differences in the chemical composition of membranes could be responsible for differences in the response to the ethanol consumption.