How to Use dehydrogenase in a Sentence

dehydrogenase

noun
  • The liver also uses alcohol dehydrogenase to break down methanol—and that’s where the problems start.
    — Carrie Arnold, National Geographic, 19 Aug. 2020
  • Their bodies have lower amounts of alcohol dehydrogenases, an enzyme needed to break down alcohol.
    — Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 12 Apr. 2024
  • The former has been implicated in celiac disease, while the latter is an alcohol dehydrogenase locus.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 27 July 2011
  • Women have lower amounts of the enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, needed to break their drinks down, so they are left with higher levels of a substance that is toxic to organs like the liver.
    — Linda Carroll, NBC News, 28 July 2023
  • For starters, the bloodstream carries most of the ethanol in an alcoholic beverage straight to the liver, where an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase breaks it down into acetaldehyde.
    — Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 30 Dec. 2024
  • The liver uses enzymes, including one called alcohol dehydrogenase, to transform ethanol from a mild toxin into a harmless chemical called acetate.
    — Carrie Arnold, National Geographic, 19 Aug. 2020
  • Most of the work happens in the liver, where two key enzymes, alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase, ultimately break down ethanol into water and carbon dioxide.
    — Lauren J. Young, Scientific American, 17 Mar. 2026
  • More insight is needed into whether this could help people who don’t produce adequate levels of aldehyde dehydrogenase, the key enzyme needed for alcohol metabolization.
    — Claire Turrell, Discover Magazine, 5 Nov. 2020
  • Ethanol undergoes a biochemical reaction that produces acetaldehyde, which is then broken down by another enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase and excreted from the body.
    — Michele Cohen Marill, Wired, 5 Oct. 2021
  • Another enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase, quickly breaks down acetaldehyde again into acetate.
    — Angelica Bottaro, Verywell Health, 23 Jan. 2025
  • An Expert Weighs In She further explains that some people may also be missing alcohol dehydrogenase, a key enzyme that helps the body break down alcohol.
    — Athena Sobhan, Peoplemag, 16 May 2024
  • Women also produce less of the alcohol-metabolizing enzyme known as alcohol dehydrogenase.
    — The Week Staff, The Week, 19 Mar. 2023
  • Eating first may be even more important for women, who are thought to have lower levels of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), the enzyme that primarily breaks down alcohol, in their stomachs.
    — Lindzi Wessel, Popular Science, 30 Dec. 2019
  • For example, the enzyme cellobiose dehydrogenase from the fungus Phanerochaete sordida can break down sugars and generate electrical current when stuck onto carbon tubes only nanometers (billionths of a meter) wide.
    — Charles Q. Choi, Washington Post, 9 June 2018
  • Two enzymes–alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase–are responsible for processing alcohol in the body.
    — Kimberly Hickok, Popular Mechanics, 17 Mar. 2022
  • Alcohol is mostly processed by enzymes in the liver, primarily alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH).
    — Jake Parks, Discover Magazine, 15 Nov. 2023
  • In the liver 80 percent is broken down by alcohol dehydrogenase; the remaining 20 percent is possibly metabolized by another enzyme, catalase.
    — Mark Fischetti, Scientific American, 1 Sep. 2023
  • An enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is responsible for breaking down acetaldehyde.
    — John Loeppky, Verywell Health, 13 Jan. 2025
  • Doctors didn’t expect Mia to reach her first birthday because of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency (PDCD), a rare, genetic disorder often fatal during infancy.
    — Edgar Thompson, The Orlando Sentinel, 9 Mar. 2026
  • The drug blocks a form of the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which helps the body metabolize alcohol; drinking while taking disulfiram leads to an extremely unpleasant, and occasionally fatal, constellation of hangover-like symptoms.
    — Emily Anthes, Bloomberg.com, 3 Aug. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dehydrogenase.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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