Acetate formation after short-term ethanol administration in man

The effect of an acute oral load of 0.5 g ethanol/kg body weight was studied in a group of 10 healthy male and one of 10 healthy female individuals. The following parameters were measured in the blood between 0 and 7 h after the start of the experiment: ethanol, acetate, glucose, free fatty acids, free glycerol, lactate, pyruvate, 3-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate. While the elimination of ethanol followed zero-order kinetics between 2 and 5 h, a steady-state concentration of 0.4 to 0.6 mM acetate in the serum was observed during the same time interval. Concomitantly, a significant decrease of free fatty acid and free glycerol concentrations was observed.