Talk:Alcohol dehydrogenase
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I think the link to acetate is wrong, but I don't know what the right link should be. -- Walt Pohl 03:39, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- After looking through some other Wikipedia entries, I changed it to acetic acid. -- Walt Pohl 05:34, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
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[edit] Sex!
Er, now that I have your attention...a recent edit begs a question: how can it be possible that a sexual dichotomy exists in digestive enzyme production? I could imagine sexual dimorphism, but this article seems to assert that all women have a different gene coding for this enzyme than all men...or that some digestive enzyme genes are turned off in women, but active in men, which seems only slightly less plausible. I want to know whose theory this is.--Joel 23:32, 11 July 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Nitpicking
"It is believed that alcohol dehydrogenase in women is less effective than that in men, which can cause women to be more affected by alcohol than men." This suggests that women have a different type of alcohol dehydrogenase. I think it would be more appropriate to state that the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase is lower.
-I agree; I believe the expression level is lower, but I don't have time to find a source, sorry! Also, shouldn't the statement about ethnic variation be re-written? It doesn't make a lot of sense as is. Are asians lower or higher in ADH? What about Jews? --Eirinn 13:25, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
-its not so black and white - certain populations show polymorphisms of 2 ADH genes, so if an individual is from that population they are more likely to contain those alleles. This means they have more genes producing ADH, which leads to the problem with not being able to take alcohol as well. Asian populations tend to show higher frequencies of those genes compared to Western populations. Not sure about Jews offhand.
-Alcohol has three main different mechanisms for breakdown; P450's, ADH and peroxide, so any one pathway could be deficient in women. The ADH pathway may be perfect. Paul, 14-12-06
[edit] Enthalpy of reaction
I got in an argument with a friend of the family once - me claiming the metabolism of alcohol provides the body no useful energy, her claiming it does. Does anyone know who is right? - GSchjetne 08:52, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
Your freind is right, alcohol is a metabolic precursor to Acteyl CoA (takes a few steps to get there). This is the molecule that enters the Krebs cycle, which generates NADH for use in oxidative phosphorylation in the electron transport chain.
- Aah, thanks! As a chemistry student and future engineering student I just think enthalpy... All I know about human biochemistry is it sometimes gives me a headache the day after :P --GSchjetne 15:45, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Mechanism
A chemical mechanism (preferably including residues and cofactors) would be nice Paul, 14-12-06
[edit] Habituation
No mention has been made of elevated gene expression, in response to continuous exposure to the substrate and why this means the person has to consume progressively larger quantities to achieve the desired level of intoxication. This leads to 'stockpiling' of the enzyme and liver damage from the increased amounts of the reaction products. I don't have any sources to quote, at present. EatYerGreens 13:27, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
