ABSTRACT
There has been controversy for many years as to whether liver disease in alcoholics can be prevented by the provision of a nutritious diet. The concept that nutritional imbalance was important in its pathogenesis arose from the demonstration that certain dietary deficiency states can give rise to hepatic lesions, which resemble the early stages of alcoholic liver disease. The liver lesions associated with malnutrition differ in a number of ways from those produced by alcohol, providing further evidence against a primary role for nutritional imbalance in the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver disease. Choline deficiency in rats with hepatic steatosis and fibrosis can be exacerbated by concomitant administration of ethanol, probably via stimulation of the enzyme choline oxidase. Although nutritional imbalance may not play a primary role in the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver disease, these factors may be important in the potentiation of hepatic damage.
