Acceleration of ethanol metabolism by administration of uridine diphosphate(UDP) in rat

To see if UDP accelerates the metabolism of ethanol, Wistar female rats were given UDP(100 mg/kg b.w.) intra-gastrically prior to a single dose of ethanol (3 g/kg b.w.) ingestion. UDP pretreatment accelerated blood ethanol disappearance rate by 50% (mg/kg animal/hr) by Widmark formula. Increases of the hepatic triglyceride concentration 6 hours and 20 hours after ethanol administration were significantly low in UDP pretreated animals suggesting the lipotropic effect of UDP. Neither the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase nor microsomal ethanol oxidizing system was affected by UDP pretreatment. The ratio of lactate to pyruvate in liver 6 hours after ethanol was not changed as compared with that of the control whether the rats were pretreated with UDP or not. There were significant increases in hepatic ATP content and the size of the adenylate pool in UDP pretreated group, whereas the energy charge was unchanged as compared with ethanol-alone group. These data suggest that UDP enhances ethanol metabolism possibly by causing a change in ATP metabolism.