[Metabolic adaptation to alcohol in rats with different preference of ethanol over water].

Recent studies have shown that the phenomenon of ethanol preference by animals and of alcohol consumption by humans may be related to the intensity of its metabolism in the body and depend on the activities of the ethanol and aldehyde metabolizing systems which are potential regulators of the acetaldehyde level in the cell. The special features of adaptative reactions of this system (alcohol dehydrogenase, microsomal ethanol oxidizing system, catalase, aldehyde dehydrogenase) were examined in rats, differing by the preference to water or ethanol (5%, 10%, 15%) under condition of a long contact with alcohol.