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Mice lacking the 66 kDa isoform of the adapter molecule shcA (p66 shcA ) display increased resistance to oxidative stress and delayed aging. In cultured cell lines, p66 promotes formation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) in mitochondria, and apoptotic cell death in response to a variety of pro-oxidant noxious stimuli. As mitochondrial ROS and oxidative cell damage are clearly involved in alcohol-induced pathology, we hypothesized that p66 may also have a role in ethanol. In vivo, changes observed in p66 þ / þ mice after 6-week exposure to ethanol in the drinking water, including elevated serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), liver swelling and evident liver steatosis, were significantly attenuated in p66À/À mutant mice. Biochemical analysis of liver tissues revealed induction of the p66 protein by ethanol, whereas p66-deficient livers responded to alcohol with a significant upregulation of the mitochondrial antioxidant enzyme MnSOD, nearly absent in control mice. Evidence of an inverse correlation between expression level of p66 and protection from alcohol-induced oxidative stress was also confirmed in vitro in primary hepatocytes and in HepG2-E47 cells, an ethanol-responsive hepatoma cell line. In fact, MnSOD upregulation by exposure to ethanol in vitro was much more pronounced in p66KO versus wild-type isolated liver cells, and blunted in HepG2 cells overexpressing p66shc. p66 overexpression also prevented the activation of a luciferase reporter gene controlled by the SOD2 promoter, indicating that p66 repression of MnSOD operates at a transcriptional level. Finally, p66 generated ROS in HepG2 cells and potentiated oxidative stress and mitochondrial depolarization by ethanol. Taken together, the above observations clearly indicate a role for p66 in alcohol-induced cell damage, likely via a cell-autonomous mechanism involving reduced expression of antioxidant defenses and mitochondrial dysfunction.

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In order to investigate the pathogenic mechanism responsible for liver injury associated with chronic alcoholism, we studied the effects of different dietary vitamin E levels in chronically ethanol (EtOH)-fed rats on the activity and mRNA regulation of the manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) enzyme. Evidence is accumulating that intermediates of oxygen reduction may in fact be associated with the development of alcoholic liver disease. Since low vitamin E liver content seems to potentiate EtOH-linked oxidative stress, we studied the effect of EtOH treatment in livers from rats fed a diet deficient or supplemented with vitamin E. Chronic EtOH feeding enhanced hepatic consumption of vitamin E in both groups of EtOH-treated animals, irrespectively of the vitamin E level of the basal diet and the effect was observed in both the microsomal and mitochondrial fractions. Both EtOH-fed groups exhibited increased MnSOD gene expression, while the enzyme activity was enhanced only in the vitamin E-deprived group of EtOH-treated animals. The significant increase in manganese liver content found only in this last group could explain the rise of enzyme activity. In fact, in the absence of a parallel increase of the prosthetic ion manganese, MnSOD mRNA induction was not accompanied by a higher enzymatic activity. These findings support the role of oxidative alteration in the EtOH-induced chronic hepatotoxicity in which MnSOD response might represent a primary defence mechanism against the damaging effect of oxygen radical species.

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