Influence of ethanol on pancreatic lipid metabolism.

The influence of acute exposure to ethanol on rat pancreatic lipogenesis has been investigated. Marked alterations of in vitro pancreatic lipid metabolism were found with changes compatible with increased de novo triglyceride synthesis. Ethanol in vitro stimulated (U--14C) glucose incorporation into triglyceride, but inhibited incorporation into phosphatidyl choline. Prior exposure to ethanol did not further enhance these effects on labeled glucose incorporation. One hour after feeding ethanol at a dose of 378 mg/100 g body weight, (1--14C) acetate incorporation in vitro into pancreatic lipid was significantly increased. This increase was not uniform, but was confined to the free fatty acid, triglyceride, sphingomyelin, and phosphatidyl choline fractions. Similar observations were made when pancreatic tissue from saline-fed control animals was incubated in the presence of ethanol at a concentration of 3.4 mM. Prior exposure to ethanol enhanced this stimulatory effect, and tissue from the alcohol-fed animals incubated in the presence of ethanol incorporated more acetate label into all lipid fractions than tissue from alcohol-fed animals incubated without ethanol and from saline-fed animals incubated in the presence of ethanol.