Chunk #58 — 6. ALCOHOL-ASSOCIATED CHANGES IN GENE/PROTEIN EXPRESSION OF P RATS — 6.3 Expression Differences for Glutamate Transporters, Enzymes, and Postsynaptic Density (Table 3)
In general, adolescent binge-like drinking upregulated 14 of the 17 glutamate ancillary genes identified as significantly changed, suggesting that ethanol induces substantial increases in DRN glutamatergic activity during this stage of development. Of the genes identified as significantly different between P and NP rats, in the AcbSh of adult animals, half were higher and half were lower. In the CeA (9 of 17) and VTA (4 of 5), adult P rats generally had lower expression levels of glutamate ancillary genes than their NP counterparts. Regarding ethanol exposure, 6 of the 10 genes identified as significantly different relative to ethanol-naive controls were upregulated in the AcbSh of adult P rats. In ethanol-drinking/self-administering adult P rats, two of the five genes identified as significant in the CeA were downregulated. Overall, these findings of glutamate transporter and cytoskeleton/scaffolding protein gene expression level changes induced by ethanol parallel the existing literature indicating that ethanol exposure alters glutamate clearance from the synapse and induces neuro-plastic changes in the PSD.
