Acute ethanol-mediated insulin resistance in the rat: the role of ethanol oxidation

Ethanol causes an acute and profound insulin resistance in humans and in the rat. Recent studies indicate that defects in skeletal muscle glucose uptake and utilization make a major contribution to this insulin resistance. In this study, we used the euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp to examine the role that hepatic ethanol oxidation via alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) plays in the acute insulin resistance caused by ethanol in the rat. Treatment with the ADH inhibitor 4-methylpyrazole (4-MP) failed to abolish the insulin resistance as expressed as a decrease in the rate of glucose infusion required to maintain euglycaemia (GIR). A decrease in GIR was also observed in response to tert-butanol, an alcohol that is not a substrate for hepatic ADH. These results indicate that oxidation via ADH is not a prerequisite for the inhibition by ethanol of whole-body glucose utilization. In a separate study, we examined the relationship between blood ethanol concentration and GIR in order to determine the potency of ethanol in causing insulin resistance. These experiments showed that even at low blood concentrations (<2 mM), ethanol caused a profound decrease in GIR, similar in magnitude to that observed at higher blood concentrations (approximately 40 mM)