Table 2 gives an overview of the functional categories that have been identified across independent studies as enriched among differentially expressed genes. It is striking that all these categories repeatedly emerged from both preclinical and clinical studies and that in most cases they showed up across rodent models of predisposition, acute and chronic exposure. Genes related to neurotransmission, cell proliferation, neurite development and cytoskeleton speak to the structural and functional neuroplasticity induced by ethanol. Conversely, genes related to cell death, myelination and stress response are most relevant to the neurotoxic effects of ethanol. Importantly, some of these broad functional categories regroup a range of more specific molecular pathways or biological processes that may be differentially represented in the different paradigms of ethanol exposure.
