[7, 14, 43], dependence/withdrawal [9, 15, 17] and alcohol-induced conditioned-place preference [21]. However, these studies report expression changes that are occurring at a single point in time after alcohol treatment and thus, do not capture dynamic transcriptional regulation. The temporal relationship between alcohol-responsive miRNAs and mRNAs resulting from alcohol challenge has not been investigated directly. The goal of this study was to combine new microRNA data with previously identified mRNA [26] changes in brain regions of mice subjected to CIE vapor, a paradigm known to escalate voluntary ethanol consumption in rodents. MicroRNA expression changes were measured in three brain regions (AMY, NAC, PFC) at three time points (0-, 8- and 120h) following repeated exposures to ethanol vapor. These three time points represent distinct actions of ethanol as they correspond to intoxication, withdrawal and protracted abstinence, respectively. These very different actions of alcohol would be expected to have brain-region and gene network specific actions on the transcriptome as we found in our earlier study (24). Because we propose that at least some of the transcriptome changes are related to changes in microRNAs, we would also expect that the DE microRNAs would vary considerably between time points and brain regions.
