Ethanol and hydrazine sulfate induced chronic hepatic injury in rats: the curative effect of administration of glucogenic amino acids.

There is a widespread belief that when ethanol is fed to rats for a long time, it produces only fatty degeneration without necrosis or fibrosis. In this study, hydrazine sulfate, an inhibitor of low Km ALDH and gluconeogenetic enzymes, was fed with ethanol to rats, and produced more serious pathological changes compared with those found in Lieber's model. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with a low fat liquid diet as a basal diet with ethanol (4%, w/v) and hydrazine sulfate for 4 weeks. At the end of the experiment, plasma aminotransferase levels were found to be elevated. Histological examination showed not only fatty degeneration but also pericellular fibrosis. Therefore, we have evaluated the curative effect of glucogenic amino acids, alanine and glutamine, on this hepatic injury model and found them to be partially protective.