Effect of ethanol on collagen formation in dietary cirrhosis in the rat.

Ethanol (10 or 15% in the drinking water) was found to increase the amount of collagen in the livers of rats receiving a cirrhogenic diet. This effect of ethanol was most striking in the animals receiving 10% ethanol. Ethanol lowered the amount of labeled proline incorporated into hydroxyproline and, therefore, into collagen. The amount of labeled hydroxyproline remaining in the liver 7 days after injection was greater in the rats receiving 10% ethanol than in the pair-fed controls. A net increase in collagen deposition attributable to ethanol was associated with lowered rate of collagen synthesis. The main action of ethanol in increasing the rate of collagen deposition, therefore, must be inhibition of collagen breakdown.