Ethanol and the Liver PDF

Preface

From the biological point of view, the human liver is one of the most well studied organs. Alcohol has been man's favored beverage for thousands of years, and liver damage due to alcohol has become one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the Western World in the twentieth century. Ethanol remains the commonest cause of serious liver damage, although frequently in combination with other toxins such as drugs or hepatitis viruses. However, it is only comparatively recently that ethanol was shown to be a hepatotoxin and that liver damage was not merely a consequence of co-existent malnutrition. Although the mechanisms responsible for the spectrum of ethanol-induced liver disease have been the subject of numerous investigations, recent progress in the biomedical field indicate that the underlying mechanisms are complex and are still incompletely understood.

Thanks largely to a number of pioneers, the pace of progress in our understanding of clinical liver disease has increased markedly over the last thirty years, but rapid advances in various spheres of bio-molecular medicine have given rise to as many questions as answers. However, basic scientific advances have not, in general, been accompanied by great progress in treatment. Apart from improvements in the management of complications of chronic liver disease, the single most important therapeutic intervention remains abstinence fi·om alcohol. In addition, the central role of the liYet· in many vital metabolic processes and the separate toxic effects of ethanol on other organ systems results in a number of diw-rse pathological processes in patients with alcoholic liver disease which rnay challenge physicians even further.