Final answer:
An alcoholic would have overactive alcohol dehydrogenase system in their liver cells. The alcohol dehydrogenase system metabolizes ethanol in the liver by converting it into acetaldehyde.
Step-by-step explanation:
An alcoholic would have overactive alcohol dehydrogenase system in their liver cells. The liver metabolizes alcohol using two main processes, the alcohol dehydrogenase system and the microsomal ethanol oxidizing system (MEOS). About 80 to 90% of the hepatic ethanol uptake is processed via the alcohol dehydrogenase system, which converts ethanol into acetaldehyde.
Since acetaldehyde is toxic, it must be further degraded by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase into acetate, a non-toxic molecule. Therefore, an alcoholic would have overactive alcohol dehydrogenase enzymes in their liver cells to metabolize the excessive amounts of alcohol.