Similar effects of ethanol and tert-butanol on amino acid concentrations in rat serum and liver.

Both metabolic and nonmetabolic mechanisms have been proposed to the plasma amino acid decreasing effect of an acute ethanol load. We used tert-butanol, an alcohol that is only minimally metabolized, as a tool to explain the mechanism behind the amino acid decreasing effect of ethanol. Acute administration of tert-butanol was found to exert a decreasing effect on rat serum amino acid concentrations similar to that of ethanol, indicating that the mechanism of the amino acid decreasing effect of ethanol is primarily due to ethanol itself and not to its oxidation. Ethanol and tert-butanol also had similar effects on liver amino acid concentrations, including an increase in the glycine concentration and decrease in the concentrations of glutamate, alanine, leucine, and tyrosine.