Abstract
The serum activity of alcohol dehydrogenase was determined in healthy controls and in patients with liver diseases. The mean activity in hepatoma (6·4 ± 1·0U/L) was significantly higher (P<0·05) than the mean values in liver cirrhosis (2·7 ± 0·5U/L); hepatitis (4·3 ± 1·OU/L), obstructive jaundice (2·9 ± 0·5U/L) and healthy controls (0·7 ± 0·1U/L).
Alcohol dehydrogenase purified by CM-cellulose chromatography from the sera of patients with hepatoma had a higher affinity for butanol long chain saturated and unsaturated alcohols than the purified enzyme from healthy controls. Similarly, hepatoma alcohol dehydrogenase oxidized ethanol very poorly (K M = 154μM) when compared with that from healthy controls (K M = 40·2μM). Hepatoma alcohol dehydrogenase was inhibited by pyrazole while those of other liver diseases and the healthy controls were not.
These properties of serum alcohol dehydrogenase may prove useful in the early diagnosis of hepatoma since biochemical changes occur before morphological changes in the development of cancer.