Effects of alcohol abuse: studies on human erythrocyte susceptibility to lipid peroxidation

The susceptibility to lipid peroxidation induced by an iron-ascorbate system was studied in human erythrocyte membranes (ghost), and measured as thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) formed. The male and female subjects were 13 chronic alcoholic patients aged 34-54 who assumed 200-250 g/die of ethanol, and 12 healthy controls aged 23-46. In alcoholics ghost sensitivity to lipid peroxidation was significantly decreased compared with that of the controls. Peroxidation on lipids extracted from the ghosts of both control and alcoholic subjects confirmed an increased resistance to free radical damage of the erythrocyte membranes obtained from alcoholic patients, thus indicating that in alcoholic patients the lipid component is involved in the resistance to free radical damage of erythrocyte membranes. Lipid analysis revealed no significant difference in cholesterol and phospholipid content, nor in the phospholipid classes, of the two groups considered. Nevertheless the fatty acid composition of ghosts from the alcoholic subjects was significantly lower in docosahexaenoic acid content than in the controls, and it is with this in mind we propose the explanation of the results we obtained.