Review Alcohol and lipid metabolism

doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00011.2008.—Many new mechanisms for alcoholic steatosis have been suggested by work reported in the last five years. These include alterations of transcriptional controls of lipid metabolism, better understanding of the effects of abnormal methionine metabolism on the endoplasmic reticulum stress response, unraveling of the basis for sensitization of the Kupffer cell to lipopoly-saccharide, a better understanding of the role of cytokines and adipokines in alcoholic liver disease, and implication of the innate immune and complement systems in responses to alcohol. Much of this work has been facilitated by work with knockout mice. Undoubtedly, there are interrelationships among these various pathogenic mechanisms that ultimately will provide a more cohesive picture of how heavy alcohol use deranges hepatic lipid metabolism. ethanol; cytokine; triglyceride; fatty acid oxidation; fatty acid synthesis; innate immunity; endotoxin; endoplasmic reticulum stress ONE OF THE BEST KNOWN BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS of heavy ethanol consumption is the production of fatty liver. Studies on thi