2005) abuse. Ctgf and Tgfa are growth factors and their increased expression may indicate neuronal alterations are occurring as well. These results are in agreement with the GO analysis (Table 2), suggesting that anatomical structural alterations may be occurring in the CA group. It is noteworthy that CNS Ctgf gene expression levels differ between high alcohol-consuming AA vs low alcohol-consuming ANA rats (Sommer et al., 2006) and this gene has been linked with cocaine abuse (Mash et al., 2007), and, as indicated above, Tgfa over-expressing mice display greater ethanol preference than their wild-type counterparts (Hilakivi-Clarke and Goldberg, 1995).
