TRANSCRIPTOME ANALYSIS OF FRONTAL CORTEX, HIPPOCAMPUS AND NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS IN ALCOHOL-PREFERRING AND NONPREFERRING RATS

• Published in: Acta neurobiologiae experimentalis Vol. 73; p. 47
• Main Authors: Lisowski, P, Stankiewicz, A M, Goscik, J, Wieczorek, M, Swiergiel, AH, Dyr, W, Ryglewicz, D, Stefanski, R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2013
• ISSN: 0065-1400

Alcoholism is a complex disease with hereditary influence. To elucidate genetic contribution, microarrays were used to probe for differences in gene expression in limbic system structures in strains of rats selected for several generations for alcohol preference: Warsaw High Preferring (WHP) strain and Warsaw Low Preferring (WLP) strain. Microarray analyses of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), hippocampus (HP) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) gene expression patterns revealed 237, 416 and 756 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the strains (FC>1.5; adj P<0.05). While the NAc showed a substantially larger number of DEGs, there was a considerable overlap in expression profiles between the studied brain areas: 104 common transcripts changed in the same direction in the mPFC, HP, and NAc. Several functional groups, including genes involved in the action of corticosteroids, prostaglandins, glutamate, or GABA activity were found to be significantly over-represented and may play an important role in establishing a high level of voluntary alcohol drinking in our model. The results suggest candidate genes for alcohol preference quantitative trait loci (QTL) identification.