Identification of novel ethanol-sensitive genes by expression profiling.

Chronic exposure to ethanol or other addicting drugs causes long-lasting, deleterious behavioral responses, such as tolerance, dependence, sensitization, and addiction. Changes in brain gene expression are thought to be a critical component of these behavioral adaptations. Our laboratory and others have utilized cultured neuronal cells as model systems for studying gene regulation by ethanol. Recently, the use of non-biased, high-throughput approaches to studying gene expression has allowed identification of gene regulation "patterns," rather than single genes responding to ethanol. This review will discuss how expression-profiling approaches can be used to identify functional changes occurring in neural cells with chronic exposure to ethanol.