Rates of metabolism of ethanol to acetate by human neutrophil precursors and macrophages.

Studies employing uninduced and dimethylsulphoxide-induced HL60 cells have shown that promyelocytes metabolise ethanol (0.1 mg/ml) to acetate at the rate of 3.9 nmol/10(7) cells/hr and there is a progressive fall in the ethanol-metabolising capacity as promyelocytes mature into neutrophil myelocytes and, eventually, to band forms and neutrophil granulocytes. By contrast, macrophages derived from the treatment of HL60 cells with 1,25 [OH]2 vitamin D3 and from the culture of normal blood monocytes metabolised ethanol to acetate at much higher average rates of 180.1 and 184.7 nmol/10(7) cells/hr. Furthermore, nucleated marrow cell suspensions which were depleted of cells capable of adhering to plastic metabolised ethanol at only one-third the rate shown by non-depleted cell suspensions. The data indicate that neutrophils and their granule-containing precursors contribute relatively little and macrophages contribute substantially to the overall rate of ethanol metabolism by suspensions of nucleated marrow cells. In addition, the considerable capacity of macrophages to metabolise ethanol in vitro raises the possibility that the metabolism of ethanol by these cells in vivo may result in some deleterious effect on surrounding cells and thus, account, at least in part, for ethanol-induced tissue damage.