Effects of ethanol treatment and castration on liver alcohol dehydrogenase activity

Induction of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity by chronic ethanol treatment and castration has previously been reported to occur in Sprague-Dawley rats. In the present study, no induction was found following chronic ethanol treatment and only a low level of induction was found with castration. However the activity of ADH was high in control animals compared with those used in other studies. The activity of ADH in control animals was not decreased by testosterone administration, which has been shown to reverse induction of the enzyme produced by chronic ethanol treatment or castration in other studies. It is concluded that the male Sprague-Dawley rat is not necessarily a suitable animal for the study of ADH induction by chronic ethanol treatment and that further unknown factors must be identified before the regulation of ADH activity in vivo is fully understood.