Ethanol Induces Skeletal Muscle Autophagy

Inclusion Criteria: Alcoholic liver disease: * clinical, biochemical, imaging criteria and liver biopsy where available * Age 18 - 65 years old Controls: * Serum liver transaminases (i.e. ALT and AST) 40 IU/L * Normal liver ultrasound * Age 18 - 65 years old Exclusion Criteria: For both groups - alcoholic liver disease and controls: * Poorly controlled diabetes mellitus (HbA1C\>9.5 g/dl) * Untreated Hyper- / hypo- thyroidism * Patients on dialysis, renal disease with serum creatinine 1.5 mg/dL * Active intravenous drug use * History of bowel surgery or gastric bypass surgery * Medications known to alter muscle protein metabolism (i.e. corticosteroids, tamoxifen, high-dose estrogen, testosterone or anabolic steroids) * Metastatic disease, Advanced cardiac or pulmonary disease * Pregnancy * Coagulopathy- INR \>1.4 and platelet count \<80,000/ml.