are involved in neuritogenesis [48]. These biological functions are associated with regulation of transcription, translation, and cytoskeletal rearrangements [49]. In addition, these pathways are activated by a variety of signals including cytokines and heterotrimeric G protein coupled receptors [50]. Both Mapk3 and Mapk1 are related to alcohol actions in mouse [51, 52] and human [53] brain. They have also been implicated in addiction to other drugs of abuse, such as cocaine [54]. Bcl2 (B-cell lymphoma 2) family proteins regulate cell death by either pro- or anti-apoptotic mechanisms and Bcl2 is considered a "prosurvival" protein that is regulated by the Erk1/2 signaling pathway [55]. It was reported recently that ethanol exposure results in pre-mRNA mis-splicing of myeloid cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1) which is an anti-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family of proteins, suggesting a potential role for Bcl2 in ethanol-mediated neuronal cell death [56]. The regulation of Bcl-related family members is clearly important to understand in the alcohol field given that alcohol in a variety of settings is known to be involved in cell death [57]. In addition, Bcl2 is upregulated in alcohol preferring mice [51] and protects against ethanol neurotoxicity in neonatal mouse cerebellum [58].
