A proteomics study of the ACB using similar drinking procedures with inbred P rats indicated that the levels of 12 proteins were altered by MSA drinking compared to the W group and 8 proteins were altered by CA drinking compared to the W group (Bell et al., 2006a). None of the proteins that were different in the ACB between the CA and W groups of the proteomics study (Bell et al., 2006a) were found to be different between the CA and W groups in the gene expression data of the present study (Table 1). These results suggest that a direct relationship between changes in mRNA and protein levels may not be necessary (for an example of dissociations between DNA, RNA and protein levels in the brain after ethanol exposure see Babu et al., 1994) within this brain region. This could be due to a number of factors, not the least of which is procedural differences between the studies, but, in addition, proteins may be synthesized in other regions and transported to the ACB. Another possibility is that there is temporal
