inflammatory processes that regulate alcohol consumption. However, as discussed below, these genes should not be considered as exclusively ‘immune’ or ‘inflammatory’ as their role in normal brain signaling is an area of intense investigation. This raises the possibility that the altered alcohol consumption produced by deletion of these ‘immune’ genes is due to changes that occur in brain. Studies of some of these immune mediators in central nervous system function are just beginning, but roles for each of these genes in brain are emerging.
