Mouse model of chronic and binge ethanol feeding (the NIAAA model)
Chronic alcohol consumption is a leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide, leading to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Currently, the most widely used model for alcoholic liver injury is ad libitum feeding with the Lieber DeCarli liquid diet containing ethanol for 4 6 weeks; however, this model, without the addition of a secondary insult, only induces mild steatosis, slight elevation of serum alanine transaminase (ALT) and little or no inflammation. Here we describe a simple mouse model of alcoholic liver injury by chronic ethanol feeding (10 d ad libitum oral feeding with the Lieber DeCarli ethanol liquid diet) plus a single binge ethanol feeding. This protocol for chronic plus single binge ethanol feeding synergistically induces liver injury, inflammation and fatty liver, which mimics acute on chronic alcoholic liver injury in patients. This feeding protocol can also be extended to chronic feeding for longer periods of time up to 8 weeks plus single or multiple binges. Chronic binge ethanol feeding leads to high blood alcohol levels; thus, this simple model will be very useful for the study of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and of other organs damaged by alcohol consumption.
Nature Protocols