Hindawi Publishing Corporation Biochemistry Research International Volume 2012, Article ID 216450, 12 pages doi:10.1155/2012/216450 Review Article Mechanisms of Alcohol-Induced Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Organ Injuries Cheng Ji Southern California Research Center for ALPD and Cirrhosis, USC Research Center for Liver Disease, Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Cheng Ji,
[email protected] Received 30 July 2011; Accepted 31 August 2011 Academic Editor: Huiping Zhou Copyright © 2012 Cheng Ji. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Alcohol is readily distributed throughout the body in the blood stream and crosses biological membranes, which affect virtually all biological processes inside the cell. Excessive alcohol consumption induces numerous pathological stress responses, part of which is endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response. ER stress, a condition under which unfolded/misfolded protein accumulates in the ER, contributes to alcoholic disorders of major organs such as liver, pancreas, heart, and brain. Potential mechanisms that trigger the alcoholic ER stress response are directly or indirectly related to alcohol metabolism, which includes toxic acetaldehyde and homocysteine, oxidative stress, perturbations of calcium or iron homeostasis, alterations of S-adenosylmethionine to S- adenosylhomocysteine ratio, and abnormal epigenetic modifications. Interruption of the ER stress triggers is anticipated to have therapeutic benefits for alcoholic disorders. 1. Introduction most organs including brain, gastrointestinal tract, immune system, kidney, lung, heart, pancreas, and most frequently Alcohol is the most socially accepted addictive drug.