Influence of fructose on the mechanisms for ethanol-induced hypertriglyceridaemia

Abstract

Twelve adult albino rabbits with an average weight of 1.42 kg were purchased and divided equally into the normal saline, ethanol and ethanol+fructose-treated groups. The ethanol-treated group orally received 1.5 g (40%) ethanol/kg body weight as single daily dose, while the ethanol +fructose-treated animals also received the same ethanol dose, but were given in addition, 0.25 gfructose/kg body weight after about 10 min of the ethanol administration. The normal saline-treated rabbits were given the equivalent amount of normal saline in lieu of ethanol. The animals were exposed to these various treatments along with their usual feeding pattern for a regular period of 15 weeks. Results showed that the progressive increase (P<0.05) in plasma triacylglycerol positively correlates with the changes in the activity values of an ethanol-induced microsomal enzyme, gamma- glutamyltransferase (GGT) in both ethanol and ethanol + fructose-treated animals. The relationship was stronger with the ethanol-treated group. The lipoprotein - cholesterol contents showed that ethanol + fructose administration increased the amounts of cholesterol in VLDL and HDL (P>0.05) but decreased (P<0.05) LDL-cholesterol. These observed changes suggest that in the presence of fructose, ethanol may induce hypertriglyceridaemia by increasing hepatic secretion of VLDL and decreasing the removal of triacylglycerol from plasma.