Time-course of liver fat accumulation in man after a single load of ethanol

Three healthy young male subjects were given a single load of ethanol (approximately 3 g/kg body weight) over 5 hours. Liver aspiration biopsies were performed at the start of the experiment and 6, 14, 24, and 48 hours after the start. Blood alcohol and serum transaminase activity levels were measured simultaneously. Triglycerides and phospholipids of the liver biopsy material were determined by a previously described method. The increase of the molar ratio triglycerides over phospholipids (TG/PL) was used to express triglyceride accumulation in the livers. At 24 hours from the start of the experiment this ratio had increased 2-5 times, and then declined to almost the initial values at 48 hours. Serum transaminases showed a slight increase over the entire experimental period. Considerable individual variation in the parameters was found. The results show that it is possible to follow time-course of rapid metabolic changes in the human liver by a combination of the fine-needle aspiration biopsy technique and biochemical micro-methods.