Effects of alcohol consumption on liver structure and biochemical indicators: an experimental study

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The article challenges the belief that frequent consumption of low-alcohol beverages, such as beer, cocktails and wine, has little or only transient effects on health. It argues that habitual, long-term consumption of low concentrations of alcohol can have consequences similar to those of stronger drinks, affecting the digestive, cardiovascular and nervous systems. The liver is the principal detoxification barrier. The authors’ experiments found impaired hepatocyte structure with vacuolar and fatty degeneration following exposure to both lower and higher alcohol concentrations, corresponding to the first stage of alcohol-related liver injury: steatosis. They conclude that liver injury developed in the experimental animals regardless of alcohol concentration.

Keywords: hepatocytes of the liver, alcohol, detoxification barrier, experimental animals, steatosis, fatty hepatosis