Abstract
Feeding rats a semiliquid ethanol diet for a period of four weeks produced a hepatic accumulation of the methylating agent N 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (N 5CH 3THF). When the ethanol-containing diet was supplemented with 0.5% betaine, an agent known to promote the generation of methionine and S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) in ethanol-fed animals, the accumulation of N 5CH 3THF was prevented. One index that the methyl folate trap exists is the hepatic accumulation of N 5CH 3THF, and a second index is that the N 5CH 3THF accumulation can be relieved by methionine administration. Since ethanol is shown to produce N 5CH 3THF accumulation in this study, and since betaine (a generator of methionine and SAM) acts to eliminate this accumulation, it is suggestive that ethanol can contribute to the impairing hepatic condition referred to as the “methyl folate trap.”
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