US EPA

2993900 

Journal Article 

Metabolic methanol: Molecular pathways and physiological roles 

Dorokhov, YL; Shindyapina, AV; Sheshukova, EV; Komarova, TV 

2015 

1 

Physiological Reviews
ISSN: 0031-9333
EISSN: 1522-1210 

95 

2 

603-644 

English 

25834233 

10.1152/physrev.00034.2014 

WOS:000352194800006 

http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00034.2014
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Methanol has been historically considered an exogenous product that leads only to pathological changes in the human body when consumed. However, in normal, healthy individuals, methanol and its short-lived oxidized product, formaldehyde, are naturally occurring compounds whose functions and origins have received limited attention. There are several sources of human physiological methanol. Fruits, vegetables, and alcoholic beverages are likely the main sources of exogenous methanol in the healthy human body. Metabolic methanol may occur as a result of fermentation by gut bacteria and metabolic processes involving S-adenosyl methionine. Regardless of its source, low levels of methanol in the body are maintained by physiological and metabolic clearance mechanisms. Although human blood contains small amounts of methanol and formaldehyde, the content of these molecules increases sharply after receiving even methanol-free ethanol, indicating an endogenous source of the metabolic methanol present at low levels in the blood regulated by a cluster of genes. Recent studies of the pathogenesis of neurological disorders indicate metabolic formaldehyde as a putative causative agent. The detection of increased formaldehyde content in the blood of both neurological patients and the elderly indicates the important role of genetic and biochemical mechanisms of maintaining low levels of methanol and formaldehyde.