Chronic ethanol consumption increases cardiomyocyte fatty acid uptake and decreases ventricular contractile function in C57BL/6J mice

► Ethanol intake by C57BL/6J mice increases cardiomyocyte fatty acid (FA) uptake. ► The increased FA uptake correlates with increased triglyceride (TG) content. ► Ethanol also down-regulates cardiac PGC-1α, the OX-PHOS pathway, and ATP. ► Ejection fraction correlates negatively with TGs and positively with ATP. ► This model mimics important features of human alcoholic cardiomyopathy.