Marcadores biológicos en la hepatopatía alcohólica

Abstract

Alcoholic liver disease is characterized by liver damage caused by long-term excessive alcohol consumption. Alcohol is absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract and primarily metabolized in the liver, where hepatocytes accumulate toxins and experience increased oxidation, resulting in substances that can harm liver tissue. Alcohol metabolism in the liver occurs through three metabolic pathways: the first pathway occurs in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes, the second occurs in the smooth endoplasmic reticulum, and the last one is mediated by the enzyme catalase. The most common alcohol-related liver conditions include simple alcoholic steatosis, alcoholic hepatitis, and cirrhosis. For the study of alcohol-related liver disease, it is recommended to determine biological markers such as aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Therefore, the development of this literature review is of great importance as it is considered useful to investigate the biomarkers that can be used for the detection of alcoholic liver disease, considering that alcohol addiction is currently a highly uncontrollable problem worldwide.