Long‑term ethanol diet (based on waste powder as vehicle) does not cause liver injury in C57BL/6 and A/J mice

Abstract

Background: Alcohol abuse is increasing worldwide in the human population and
causes severe damage such as steatosis, hepatitis, and cirrhosis. Alcoholic individuals
recurrently are more susceptible to infectious diseases since alcohol metabolites affect
the innate and acquired immune responses. Hence, there is a need for animal models
to study alcohol‑induced pathologies. Materials and Methods: In order to establish an
alternative and cheaper protocol to perform mice alcohol feeding, powder from regular
chow CR‑1 was mixture with water and agar generating a semi‑solid vehicle‑diet in
which ethanol was added. As pair‑fed control glucose was equicalorically added to the
semi‑solid vehicle‑diet. Results: Four weeks later, both ethanol and glucose diets did
not cause hematological, physiological and pathological changes in C57BL/6 and A/J
mice. Conclusions: Our results contributed to development of a new chow approach as
vehicle‑diet for substances soluble in ethanol or water. In addition, our results propose
an alternative to powder chow destination