Investigations into the production of acetate from ethanol by human blood and bone marrow cells in vitro.

The metabolism of ethanol to acetate and CO2 by suspension cultures of human blood and marrow cells has been investigated. The average rate of metabolism of ethanol by relatively pure preparations of monocytes plus lymphocytes, neutrophils and erythrocytes obtained from normal peripheral blood were, respectively, 12.58, 5.44 and 0.32 nmol/10(7) cells/h, when the concentration of ethanol in the culture was 2.63 mM. Under similar culture conditions, the average rate of metabolism of ethanol by suspension cultures of human marrow cells was 19.0 nmol/10(7) nucleated marrow cells/h. The metabolism of ethanol by nucleated marrow cells was only slightly inhibited by pyrazole and 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole indicating that it was largely independent of pyrazole-sensitive alcohol dehydrogenase and catalase. By contrast, the oxidation of ethanol by isolated rat hepatocytes was markedly inhibited by pyrazole and therefore appeared to be mainly dependent on alcohol dehydrogenase. It is concluded that bone marrow cells have a considerable capacity to metabolize ethanol and that the predominant biochemical pathway involved in this metabolism is different from that involved in rat hepatocytes.