Chronic Treatment of Ethanol Inhibits Proliferation of Normal Fibroblasts, but Not Oncogenic ras-Transformed Cells

The adverse effects of ethanol on cell proliferation have been described for a variety of tissues and cells. In the present study, we investigated whether chronic ethanol intoxication impairs the cell proliferation and DNA synthesis induced by oncogenic $H-ras^{V12}$ - and $v-K-ras^{V12}$-transformed cells. Ethanol treatment inhibited the cell proliferation and the DNA synthesis of control parental fibroblasts in a time- and dose-dependent manner. In contrast, ethanol did not suppress the proliferation of either oncogenic $H-ras^{V12}$ - or $v-K-ras^{V12}$ -transformed fibroblasts. Microinjection of oncogenic $H-Ras^{V12}$ protein induces DNA synthesis and ethanol treatment did not interfere with the DNA synthesis. The antiproliferative toxicity of ethanol was rescued by antioxidants, such as N-acetylcysteine and 4-methlpyrazole. These results indicate that the antiproliferative action site of ethanol toxicity lies upstream or is independent of Ras and ethanol exerts its toxicity through a free radical formation.