Can brain lesions occur in experimental animals by administration of ethanol or acetaldehyde?
In a series of experimental studies involving ethanol vapour administration to rats, sustained blood alcohol levels in the range 89-115 mM for nine hours of each day over a two week period did not lead to neural degeneration detactable with either light or electron microscopy. A single nine hours exposure to ethanol and disulfiram giving rise to 20-41 mM alcohol and 52-76 microM acetaldehyde in the blood did lead to degeneration; and that with repeated exposures of this later type, the damage was found to be accumulative. The lowest levels of blood acetaldehyde which led to neural degeneration in the present study were not distant from clinically observed levels.
