Pantothenic acid, acute ethanol consumption and sulphadimidine acetylation

The effect of pantothenic acid and acute ethanol loading on the genetically determined N-acetyltransferase activity has been studied using sulphadimidine as a test substance. The administration of 1100 mg pantothenic acid daily (600 mg orally, 500 mg iv) for seven days did not significantly alter sulphadimidine kinetics in the primarily elderly 21 subjects we investigated. Acute ethanol loading (0.73 g/kg pure alcohol at start and 0.11 g/kg pure alcohol hourly for 8 hours afterwards, stock solution: 20% v/v ethanol in fruit juice) did not change sulphadimidine acetylation in 10 healthy male volunteers. It is concluded that despite theoretical assumptions exogenous factors like pantothenic acid and ethanol do not significantly influence the cytosolic N-acetyltransferase activity. Consequently they do not interfere with the acetylator phenotyping procedure.