We examined gene expression in LCLs from alcohol dependent and control individuals to detect both pre-existing differences and the effects of ethanol. Because much data from brain transcriptome studies suggests that ethanol is associated with changes in neuroimmune genes and pathways (Crews & Vetreno, 2016; Mayfield et al., 2013; McClintick et al., 2013), and because many of the genes expressed in brain are also expressed in LCLs, LCLs are reasonable candidates to study both preexisting differences and effects of ethanol under controlled conditions. Their accessibility is a major advantage for biomarker and functional studies. Demographic information on the subjects whose LCLs were analyzed is in Table 1. The average age of onset for DSMIV AD was 16.8, and they each met 6 or 7 of the DSM-IV criteria. Four of the controls met one criterion, the rest none.
