receptors [1, 2, 7–13]. In many cases, the effects of alcohol were shown to involve activation of the Tlr4 receptor [9, 10, 12, 14–17] which can directly activate inflammatory transcription factor NFkB and subsequently increase of inflammatory gene expression. Alcohol has also increased the expression of TLRs, in both the liver [18] and the CNS [19, 20]. Other studies have shown that alcohol also increases expression and acetylation of HMGB1 which can bind to TLRs and thereby induce inflammatory gene expression [3, 19].
