Alcoholism is a major health problem around the world (World Health Organization, 2011). It is a complex disease with both genetic and environmental contributions to risk, and the interplay between genes and environment is likely to be important (Edenberg and Foroud, 2006; Enoch, 2012; Meyers and Dick, 2010; Rietschel and Treutlein, 2012). Alcoholism and alcoholic organ damage are consequences of repeated exposures to high levels of ethanol over long periods (Koob and Le Moal, 2005; Laakso et al., 2000; Parry et al., 2011). Understanding how cells and organs are affected by ethanol can provide clues about mechanisms of toxicity and protection. Studies of gene expression can also complement linkage and association studies, by pointing to genes that differ in basal expression between alcoholics and controls and also to genes whose expression is altered temporarily or permanently by ethanol exposure. Nicolae et al. (Nicolae et al., 2010) showed that trait-associated SNPs are more likely to affect gene expression in LCLs (i.e., to be expression QTLs), and that application of this information can enhance discovery of trait-associated SNPs for complex phenotypes.
