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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Histological Analyses of Acute Alcoholic Liver Injury in Zebrafish
Published on: May 25, 2017
Alcohol deranges hepatic lipid metabolism via altered transcriptional regulation
1Department of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
Abstract:
Alcohol has classically been thought to cause fatty liver by way of altered redox potential in the liver, which inhibits fatty acid oxidation. Additional effects appear to play a role both in impairing fat oxidation and stimulating lipogenesis. Alcohol reduces the DNA binding and transcription-activating properties of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha), both in cultured cells and in mice fed alcohol. Treatment of alcohol-fed mice with a PPARalpha agonist reverses fatty liver despite continued alcohol consumption. Alcohol also activates sterol response element- binding protein 1 (SREBP-1), inducing a battery of lipogenic enzymes. This effect may be due in part to inhibition of AMP-dependent protein kinase. This understanding of alcohol effects provides new therapeutic targets to reverse alcoholic fatty liver.
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