Irritative action of alcoholic beverages in rat stomachs: a comparative study with ethanol.

The mucosal irritative action of alcoholic beverages such as white wine, Japanese sake and whisky was examined in rat stomachs in vivo and in vitro, in comparison with ethanol. The concentration of ethanol in these alcoholic beverages was 15%. Mucosal application of ethanol (15%) and whisky in the chambered stomach caused a decrease in gastric potential difference (PD), while that of Japanese sake and white wine caused a slight increase but not decrease in PD. Likewise, both ethanol and whisky markedly reduced the cell viability of RGM1 cells after 5 min incubation, whereas neither Japanese sake nor white wine had any effect. In addition, supplementation of glucose, one of the non-alcoholic ingredients of white wine and Japanese sake, antagonized a reduction in both PD and cell viability caused by ethanol. These results suggest that the mucosal irritative action of Japanese sake and white wine is much less than that of ethanol or whisky and that these properties may be, at least partly, due to the glucose contained in these alcoholic beverages.