Alcohol withdrawal results in handling-induced convulsions in mice.222 PKCε knockout mice show reduced severity of handling-induced convulsions during abstinence from chronic ethanol exposure.223 In addition, chronic ethanol exposure, particularly when administered in a binge fashion interspersed with periods of abstinence, produces a hyperalgesia in rats that can be attenuated by decreasing PKCε activity through local injection of a PKCε inhibitor peptide into the paw being tested224 or by intrathecal administration of antisense oligonucleotides against PKCε.225 These findings indicate that PKCε contributes to some of the peripheral and central nervous system manifestations of ethanol withdrawal.
