Mouse model of chronic and binge ethanol feeding (the NIAAA model)

A Bertola, S Mathews, SH Ki, H Wang, B Gao - Nature protocols, 2013 - nature.com
A Bertola, S Mathews, SH Ki, H Wang, B Gao
Nature protocols, 2013nature.com
Chronic alcohol consumption is a leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide, leading
to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Currently, the most widely used model for
alcoholic liver injury is ad libitum feeding with the Lieber-DeCarli liquid diet containing
ethanol for 4–6 weeks; however, this model, without the addition of a secondary insult, only
induces mild steatosis, slight elevation of serum alanine transaminase (ALT) and little or no
inflammation. Here we describe a simple mouse model of alcoholic liver injury by chronic …
Abstract
Chronic alcohol consumption is a leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide, leading to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Currently, the most widely used model for alcoholic liver injury is ad libitum feeding with the Lieber-DeCarli liquid diet containing ethanol for 4–6 weeks; however, this model, without the addition of a secondary insult, only induces mild steatosis, slight elevation of serum alanine transaminase (ALT) and little or no inflammation. Here we describe a simple mouse model of alcoholic liver injury by chronic ethanol feeding (10-d ad libitum oral feeding with the Lieber-DeCarli ethanol liquid diet) plus a single binge ethanol feeding. This protocol for chronic-plus-single-binge ethanol feeding synergistically induces liver injury, inflammation and fatty liver, which mimics acute-on-chronic alcoholic liver injury in patients. This feeding protocol can also be extended to chronic feeding for longer periods of time up to 8 weeks plus single or multiple binges. Chronic-binge ethanol feeding leads to high blood alcohol levels; thus, this simple model will be very useful for the study of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and of other organs damaged by alcohol consumption.
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