[Toxic effect of methanol under conditions of complete and deficient protein nutrition]

In experiments with albino rats receiving complete and protein-deficient nutrition the effect of different doses of methanol (10,100 and 500 mg/kg) administered daily per os for a month was studied. Methanol was shown to display toxic hepatotropic action, producing in the liver a focal proteinic degeneration of the hepatocytic cytoplasm, causing changes in the activity of some microsomal enzymes and enlarging the average size of hepatic cells (early age-specific changes). The damaging action of methanol manifested itself in a particularly distinct fashion by depressing the synthesis of DNA, when used in large doses and against the background of a protein-deficient ration.