Variation in ADH7 has been implicated in the early stages of alcohol metabolism (22), however, it is unclear how this affects drinking propensity. A large recent study showed strong evidence of gene * environment interaction between the non-synonymous SNP rs1573496 and alcohol intake for risk of upper aerodigestive tract cancers (61). This SNP has also been shown to be associated with alcohol dependence (52) [not in (59)]. A SNP in complete LD with rs1573496 (http://www.hapmap.org/cgi-perl/gbrowse/hapmap_B35/) (62), rs971074, had also been associated with alcohol dependence (52), but other studies failed to confirm the association with either dependence (23,37,59), or with alcohol use and adverse reactions (23). In agreement with these results, the present study does not find evidence of association between ADH7 variation and alcohol drinking before or during pregnancy.
