The MSA animals were given ethanol access in 5-day blocks (Monday—Friday), with each block separated by 2 days without ethanol. Measurements of water and ethanol intake, and body weights were taken Monday through Friday at 0900 hr; ethanol intakes, for MSA animals, were also taken at the end of each 1-hr access period. After the MSA group's 1st day of re-exposure to ethanol access, of the 9th week, both groups of ethanol-drinking rats had ethanol removed at 1700 hr. To ensure that ethanol blood levels were absent and the deprivation period was equivalent for both groups, all rats were killed the next day (15 hr after removing ethanol). Rats were killed by decapitation and their brains processed for microarray analyses, as described below.
