We next used these 970 differentially expressed genes to provide additional information regarding causality to 4456 genes previously found to be responsive to alcohol in a cell culture study [57]. We found 197 genes were also differentially expressed following alcohol treatment in a lymphoblastoid cell line. Of these genes, 173 (88%) are expressed in human brain. In particular, two genes (OXTR and OAS3) showed evidence for association with alcohol dependence or consumption in GWAS (at p ≤ 9 × 10−6) [58, 59]; 48 genes were differentially expressed in at least one human brain region between alcohol dependence and control individuals; and 55 genes were differentially expressed in the brains of selectively bred alcohol-preferring (P) rats consuming large amounts of alcohol [57, 60]. Twenty genes overlapped between the 48 differentially expressed genes in human post-mortem brain and 55 differentially expressed genes in P rat brain studies (Supplementary Table S4). Therefore, these 20 genes might be prioritized in future experimental studies.
