A new insight on ethanol-induced gastric mucosa injury

Many people all over the world indulge themselves in drinking, which is correlated to a wide spectrum of medical, psychological, behavioral, and social problems. It is well known that chronic alcohol abuse may induce gastrointestinal dysfunction, chronic atrophic gastritis and is closely related with gastric carcinoma. However, the detailed mechanism by which ethanol affects the gastrointestinal mucosa remains to be elucidated.

A research article to be published on October 14, 2008 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Professor Ren from Gastroenterology Division, Zhongshan Hospital of Xiamen University, systematically evaluated gastric mucosa alteration related to ethanol.

They found that the gastric mucosal lesion index was correlated with the malondiadehyde (MDA) content in gastric mucosa. As the concentration of ethanol was elevated and the exposure time to ethanol was extended, the contentof MDA in gastric mucosa increased and the extent of damage aggravated. The ultrastructure of mitochondria was positively related to the ethanol concentration and exposure time. The expression of mtDNA ATPase subunits 6 and 8 mRNA declined with the increasing MDA content in gastric mucosa after gavage with ethanol.

They concluded that Ethanol-induced gastric mucosa injury is related to oxidative stress, which disturbs energy metabolism of mitochondria and plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of ethanol-induced gastric mucosa injury.

Reference: Pan JS, He SZ, Xu HZ, Zhan XJ, Yang XN, Xiao HM, Shi HX, Ren JL. Oxidative stress disturbs energy metabolism of mitochondria in ethanol-induced gastric mucosa injury. World J Gastroenterol 2008; 14(38): 5857-5867 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/14/5857.asp

Correspondence to: Jian-Lin Ren, PhD, MD, Professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Zhongshan Hospital, Xiamen University; Gastroenterology Institute of Xiamen University; Gastroenterology Center of Xiamen, Xiamen 361004, Fujian Province, China. jianlinr@msn.com Telephone: +86-0592-2993170 Fax: +86-0592-2993170

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

The WJG Press mainly publishes World Journal of Gastroenterology.