In addition to the oncogenes, Fos, Jun and Junb, there were several other genes in the oncogene network that were up regulated in the ACB of the CA group compared with the control animals (See Fig. 2). These genes included Ctgf, Tgfa, Plagl1, Spry2 and Rdbp. The up-regulation of Fos and other transcription factors in the CNS are often associated with increased neuronal activity (Greenberg et al., 1986; Herrera and Robertson, 1996; Morgan and Curran, 1989). Fos (along with Jun and JunB) is regulated by, or mediates the effects of, ethanol, for example, Fos is induced in the ACB shell by acute ethanol and 80% of the Fos-positive cells labeled for GAD as well (Leriche et al., 2008). Fos expression has also been associated with morphine (Taracha et al., 2008), cocaine (Zhang et al., 2006) and nicotine (Schochet et al., 2005) abuse. Ctgf and Tgfa are growth factors and their increased expression may indicate neuronal alterations are occurring as well. These results are in agreement with the GO analysis (Table 2), suggesting that anatomical structural alterations may be occurring in
