Pathways related to cellular stress response and inflammation showed increased activity in the mPFC (Table 5). Immune related genes and pathways were also reported to be increased in the prefrontal cortex of CIE-exposed C57BL/6J mice examined 0 h and 8 h post-exposure (Osterndorff-Kahanek et al., 2015). The upstream regulator analysis supports this, with indications that interferons are active (Supplemental Table 3). MiR132 expression in the mPFC is increased by the alcohol binges (Table 4); it was previously shown to be increased in the livers of alcohol fed mice (Bala & Szabo, 2012). MiR132 is important in mouse PFC development during adolescence (Miller et al., 2012), so dysregulation could interfere with PFC development in the alcohol exposed adolescent animals. MiR132 also plays a role in neuro-inflammatory responses: increased expression can help block inflammation by targeting acetylcholinesterase (Shaked et al., 2009). The increased expression of miR132 may be an attempt to dampen neuro-inflammation.
