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Alcohol and gene interactions

  • John B. Whitfield
Published/Copyright: July 5, 2005
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Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 43 Issue 5

Abstract

Alcohol use produces both desirable and undesirable effects, ranging from short-term euphoria and reduction in cardiovascular risk, to violence, accidents, dependence and liver disease. Outcomes are affected by the amount of alcohol used (which is itself affected by genetic variation) and also by the drinker's genes. Genetic effects have been most clearly demonstrated for alcohol dependence, and several of the genes for which variation leads to increased dependence risk have been identified. These include genes for enzymes involved in alcohol metabolism (alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase), and genes for receptors affected by alcohol (particularly γ-aminobutyric acid receptors). Many other gene/dependence associations have been reported but not fully substantiated. Genetic effects on phenotypes other than alcohol dependence are less well understood, and need to be clarified before a full picture of gene-alcohol interactions can be achieved.

Keywords: alcohol drinking; alcoholism; genetic linkage; genetic polymorphism; genetic variation
Corresponding author: Dr. J. B. Whitfield, Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown NSW 2050, Australia Phone: +61-2-9515-5246, Fax: +61-2-9515-7931, E-mail:

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Received: 2005-1-14
Accepted: 2005-3-3
Published Online: 2005-7-5
Published in Print: 2005-5-1

© by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York

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https://doi.org/10.1515/CCLM.2005.086
Keywords for this article
alcohol drinking; alcoholism; genetic linkage; genetic polymorphism; genetic variation

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Second Santorini Conference “From Human Genetic Variations to Prediction of Risks and Responses to Drugs and to the Environment”
  2. Expressed genome molecular signatures of heart failure
  3. Understanding hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis: lessons from genetically modified apoe and ldlr mice
  4. Alcohol and gene interactions
  5. β-Carotene stimulates chemotaxis of human endothelial progenitor cells
  6. Effect of interferon-γ, interleukin-10, lipopolysaccharide and tumor necrosis factor-α on chitotriosidase synthesis in human macrophages
  7. Two immunochemical assays to measure advanced glycation end-products in serum from dialysis patients
  8. Apolipoprotein E haplotyping by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography
  9. Both core and terminal glycosylation alter epitope expression in thyrotropin and introduce discordances in hormone measurements
  10. Do we measure bilirubin correctly anno 2005?
  11. Differences in mortality on the basis of laboratory parameters in an unselected population at the Emergency Department
  12. An Italian program of external quality control for quantitative assays based on real-time PCR with Taq-Man™ probes
  13. A reference material for traceability of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) results
  14. Harmonization of the Bayer ADVIA Centaur and Abbott AxSYM automated B-type natriuretic peptide assay in patients on hemodialysis
  15. Multicenter evaluation of the analytical and clinical performance of the Elecsys ® S100 immunoassay in patients with malignant melanoma
  16. Guidelines for sampling, measuring and reporting ionized magnesium in undiluted serum, plasma or blood: International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC): IFCC Scientific Division, Committee on Point of Care Testing
  17. Evaluation of the Quantase™ neonatal immunoreactive trypsinogen (IRT) screening assay for cystic fibrosis
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