The Pathogenesis of Inflammation in Alcoholic Liver Disease

The pathogenesis of alcoholic liver disease is still unknown. There is a strong association of both alcoholic hepatitis and subsequent cirrhosis with an inflammatory response, which could explain the damage seen in these phases of the disease. There is now evidence that liver cells metabolizing alcohol cause the lipid peroxidation leading to formation of one or more chemotactic factors, which may explain the neutrophil influx in alcoholic hepatitis. Further studies are needed to obtain chemical identification of this factor and to determine both whether it is present in the plasma of human subjects ingesting alcohol and how it is correlated with the presence of alcoholic hepatitis.