Erica Periandri and\u00a0Gabor Egervari, from Washington University in St.\u00a0Louis, led a study\u00a0to explore\u00a0how alcohol\u00a0exposure in male mice\u00a0influences gene\u00a0expression and\u00a0mechanisms\u00a0that regulate gene function-or\u00a0epigenetics.\u00a0Says Egervari, “We recently uncovered\u00a0that metabolites [from the body’s breakdown] of alcohol directly\u00a0regulate\u00a0genes in the hippocampus\u00a0following a\u00a0one-time\u00a0exposure to alcohol. This is a previously unknown and surprisingly direct way in which alcohol\u00a0impacts\u00a0the brain, and it was not known to what extent these mechanisms occur in other brain regions. Now, we wanted to see whether these new mechanisms are active in other brain areas and following repeated\u00a0exposures\u00a0to alcohol.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
As presented in their\u00a0eNeuro\u00a0paper, the researchers discovered that alcohol metabolites altered gene regulatory mechanisms\u00a0in some assessed brain areas after brief\u00a0exposure and in all assessed brain areas after lengthy\u00a0exposure to alcohol.\u00a0But\u00a0largely, the overall epigenetic<\/a> and gene expression outcomes varied by\u00a0brain\u00a0region.\u00a0Notably,\u00a0many epigenetic and gene expression programs were more powerfully\u00a0altered by short-term alcohol exposure. Molecular changes in a brain area called the ventral hippocampus, which\u00a0supports\u00a0emotion and motivated behaviors, were particularly sensitive to the number of times mice were exposed to alcohol.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the researchers, this work\u00a0shows that\u00a0how much exposure a mouse has to alcohol\u00a0determines\u00a0which genes and\u00a0gene regulatory\u00a0mechanisms are affected in some brain regions, especially in the ventral hippocampus.\u00a0While noting the\u00a0caveat\u00a0that they did not explore sex differences, the researchers emphasize that the markers they\u00a0identified\u00a0may be informative for\u00a0alcohol use disorder\u00a0treatment development.\u00a0<\/p>\n Source:<\/p>\n Journal reference:<\/p>\n