Enzyme activities and ethanol preference in mice

Alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase, the two principal enzymes of alcohol metabolism, were assayed in the livers of the inbred mouse strains C57BL/6J and DBA/2J. Previous work has shown that animals of various C57BL substrains prefer a 10% ethanol solution to water in a two-bottle preference test, and that animals of various DBA/2 substrains avoid alcohol. In the present study, C57BL/6J mice were found to have 300% more aldehyde dehydrogenase activity than DBA/2J mice and 30% more alcohol dehydrogenase activity. The F₁ generation is intermediate to the parents in preference for the 10% alcohol solution and is also found to possess intermediate levels of alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenase activity. These experiments suggest a systematic relationship between the behavioral trait of ethanol preference and the activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase and a similar but much less pronounced relationship with alcohol dehydrogenase.This research was supported by grant GM14547 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.