Rate of Metabolism of Ethanol in the Mouse

¹ From the Department of Physiology, Medical College of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina

Female mice were injected intraperitoneally with ethanol, in dosages of 4 gm/kg. The animals were killed exactly 1 or 3 hours later. Control mice were killed first and then injected as described above. The difference between the mean concentration of alcohol in the homogenized tissues of the control group and that in the individual experimental mouse permitted calculation of the rate of alcohol metabolism over a period of 1 or 3 hours. The rate of alcohol metabolism, in grams per kilogram per hour, was essentially the same during either 1 or 3 hours of metabolism. Therefore, it appears that the mouse metabolizes ethanol in a linear manner during the first 3 hours after ethanol is administered.