Chronic binge alcohol exposure pathway-related effects are shown in Fig. 4. Significant effects were observed on genes affiliated with 5 pathways. Three pathways (integrin, chemokine/cytokine, and PDGF signaling) overlap with effects caused by acute binge alcohol. Two unique pathways (angiogenesis, and Wnt signaling) appear only in the chronic binge list. Differential gene expression patterns following chronic binge alcohol were strongly biased toward decreased expression. Of a total of 1523 differentially expressed genes, 1326 genes exhibited decreased expression and only 197 had increased expression levels as compared to matched control levels. PANTHER biological pathway assignment reflected this alcohol-mediated bias toward decreased expression; most chronic binge alcohol-affected genes assigned to the pathways described above displayed decreased relative expression levels. Shown in Table 2 are genes differentially expressed either after acute or chronic binge alcohol, identified by PANTHER analysis as affiliated with the Wnt signaling pathway.
