[Alcoholic liver damage in rats: histological and histochemical findings of an one year trial (author's transl)].

30 female Wistar rats on the normal pellet diet received ethyl alcohol in increasing concentrations (5-40%) ad libitum as the only fluid intake and were sacrificed after 6, 9 and 12 months together with control animals. Alcohol dehydrogenase activity of liver parenchyma was consistently reduced in the central parts of the lobuli; histological findings however were inconsistent; fatty degeneration, focal hepatitis, and necrosis of single hepatic cells could be found as well as normal livers in rats receiving alcohol for longer time periods. In primates sclerosis of central lobular veins occurring early in the process of alcoholic liver damage has been described previously; these changes were supposed to have diagnostic relevance in regard to progression of the liver disease; such sclerotic changes can be observed as well after 6 to 12 months intake of alcohol in rat livers in varying degrees of severity.