ABSTRACT
The activities of alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenases are believed to be important determinants of responses to ethanol. The strongest evidence for this assertion is the finding, replicated by many laboratories in many countries, that the inheritance of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) alleles encoding high activity enzymes are associated with lower prevalence of alcoholism and, conversely, that inheritance of the dominant negative mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) allele (ALDH2*2) is associated with a marked reduction in the risk of alcoholism.1,2 Although it has been postulated that the activity of these enzymes might also affect the risk of developing alcoholic liver disease, considerably less data support this notion.3 Given that the activity of these enzymes as determined by their isozyme type affects the risk of alcoholism, it is natural to ask if other influences on the activity of these enzymes might also affect responses to alcohol. Considerable interest has centered on the possibility that nutritional factors may affect the expression of these enzymes.
