Ethanol oxidation by hepatic microsomes: adaptive increase after ethanol feeding.

Hepatic microsomes contain an ethanol-oxidizing system distinct from alcohol dehydrogenase. In vitro, it has characteristics comparable to those of microsomal drug-detoxifying enzymes and, in vivo, it is capable of adaptation to the administration of ethanol. The existence of this microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system may explain ultrastructural, pharmacological, and biochemical effects of ethanol.