Inflammatory processes in disease states generally occur as an evolutionary beneficial host response. However, chronic dysregulated inflammation often contributes to organ pathology and disease and is a key feature of chronic alcohol exposure. Infiltrating macrophages to the CNS in the setting of chronic alcohol may be protective or detrimental to the overall CNS milieu. Whereas we have previously shown that CVC reduces features of alcoholic liver disease, the hallmark pathologic features of chronic alcohol on the CNS are continuing to be defined, especially within the realm of inflammation, and this present study stimulates many interesting areas for future research including on synapse structures and functions, functional connections between glia and neurons, viability of neurons and glial cells, integrity of the blood-brain barrier, global neuronal network connections, and more.
