Hepatic alcohol metabolizing enzymes after prolonged administration of sex hormones and alcohol in female rats.

To study the effect of sex hormones and alcohol on the hepatic activities of alcohol metabolizing enzymes, estradiol or testosterone were administered for 4 weeks to ovarectomized or sham operated adult female rats pair-fed nutritionally adequate liquid diets containing either alcohol (36% of total calories) or isocalorically replaced carbohydrates. Estradiol increased the hepatic activities of alcohol dehydrogenase and catalase in both ovarectomized and sham operated female rats on the control diet, whereas this enhancing property was virtually lost in animals on the alcohol diet. The hepatic activities of the microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system remained unaffected under these experimental conditions irrespective of the diet used. Testosterone increased the hepatic activities of the microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system and of catalase and decreased the alcohol dehydrogenase activity in female rats on the control diet, but these changes were either not reproducible or markedly reduced in similarly treated female rats fed the alcohol diet. Thus, sex hormones may strikingly influence the hepatic activities of alcohol metabolizing enzymes, but the changes are modulated by prolonged alcohol consumption.