Early Signs of Alcohol Damage

Doctors have long known of the connection between alcohol and liver damage, but new research shows that alcohol consumption affects the liver much sooner than previously thought.

In a laboratory study, exposure to alcohol quickly activated the complement pathway — a part of the immune system that responds to invading bacteria and viruses, according to Laura Nagy, PhD, a researcher in the Department of Pathobiology at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, and her team. This leads to a boost in production of cytokines, molecules that can cause inflammation in the liver and contribute to liver injury. The study was published in April 2009 in the journal Hepatology.

Now Dr. Nagy is looking at human liver tissue samples to see whether signs of complement activation could be used as a biomarker to diagnose early liver disease or to distinguish between liver disease that would progress versus disease that would resolve.