Using a similar multiple scheduled access drinking protocol, Bell et al. (2006) reported changes in protein expression in the ACB of inbred P rats. There were 11 significant differences between the ethanol and water groups, with the ethanol group having higher protein expression in all cases. These results are consistent with the present findings and suggest that binge-like alcohol drinking is generally increasing mRNA and protein synthesis. However, there were no genes with increased expression levels in the present study that had a corresponding change in protein levels (Bell et al., 2006). The lack of agreement between protein changes and mRNA changes may be due to many factors, including mRNA changes are occurring mainly in glial and neuronal cell bodies, whereas protein changes can occur throughout the cell, including neuronal inputs to the ACB. In addition, measuring the whole ACB will likely give different results than measuring the ACB-shell, and differences in the P rat strain used (inbred vs. selectively bred) also needs to be considered.
