Gastric eicosanoid synthesis in normal subjects and alcoholics after ethanol stimulation.

This work studied the effect of different ethanol concentrations on the eicosanoid accumulation in human gastric incubates of healthy volunteers and chronic alcoholics, determining the in vitro eicosanoid release both in the basal condition and after different ethanol concentrations. The basal release of PGE2 and LTC4 in alcoholics is higher than in healthy volunteers. Various alcohol concentrations cause an increase in LTC4 and PGE2 in healthy volunteers; we observed no LTC4 increase in alcoholics and although PGE2 levels increased after 20% ethanol, they remained constant at higher ethanol concentrations.