Genotypes of alcohol-metabolizing enzymes in Mexicans with alcoholic liver cirrhosis.

With the use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), we investigated the frequency of the typical and atypical genes of the alcohol dehydrogenase 2 (ADH2) and aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) loci, in a group of patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis and two comparison groups. Contrary to what has been found in the Japanese population, there was no difference in the frequencies of these genes in the groups investigated, and we conclude that in Mexicans, the particular mutation of the ALDH2 locus which "protects" Orientals from alcoholic hepatic diseases, by making them very susceptible to alcohol and therefore discouraging its ingestion, is not present.