[Alcohol and the liver. Present knowledge of pathogenic mechanisms]

Intensive longtime experimental and clinically-experimental investigations have not yet succeeded unriddling the intimate mechanism of liver alcoholic damage. Earlier knowledge on accumulation of fats in liver under the influence of alcohol (ethanol) is still actual, but it probably represents only epiphenomenon and does not explain the intimate mechanism of events. It still can be stated that, although the aim has not been achieved, gradually, as a consequence of very studious investigations we have signification information which bring more light in regard to identify the mechanism of this frequent disease of modern mankind. We have tried to summarize the latest knowledge on alcoholic liver damages. However, some of the most simple questions still do not have an answer: why do, for example, some longtime alcoholics, whose everyday intake of alcohol is big, develop liver cirrhosis at the end of their lives, while the others, under the same circumstances, develop it very early?