Document Type

Article

Original Publication Date

2013

Journal/Book/Conference Title

PLOS ONE

Volume

8

DOI of Original Publication

10.1371/journal.pone.0082435

Comments

Originally published at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082435

Date of Submission

November 2014

Abstract

Studies in humans and animal models document that acute behavioral responses to ethanol are predisposing factor for the risk of long-term drinking behavior. Prior microarray data from our laboratory document strain- and brain region-specific variation in gene expression profile responses to acute ethanol that may be underlying regulators of ethanol behavioral phenotypes. The non-receptor tyrosine kinase Fyn has previously been mechanistically implicated in the sedative-hypnotic response to acute ethanol. To further understand how Fyn may modulate ethanol behaviors, we used whole-genome expression profiling. We characterized basal and acute ethanol-evoked (3 g/kg) gene expression patterns in nucleus accumbens (NAC), prefrontal cortex (PFC), and ventral midbrain (VMB) of control and Fynknockout mice. Bioinformatics analysis identified a set of Fyn-related gene networks differently regulated by acute ethanol across the three brain regions. In particular, our analysis suggested a coordinate basal decrease in myelin-associated gene expression within NAC and PFC as an underlying factor in sensitivity of Fyn null animals to ethanol sedation. An in silico analysis across the BXD recombinant inbred (RI) strains of mice identified a significant correlation between Fyn expression and a previously published ethanol loss-of-righting-reflex (LORR) phenotype. By combining PFC gene expression correlates to Fyn and LORR across multiple genomic datasets, we identified robust Fyn-centric gene networks related to LORR. Our results thus suggest that multiple system-wide changes exist within specific brain regions of Fynknockout mice, and that distinct Fyn-dependent expression networks within PFC may be important determinates of the LORR due to acute ethanol. These results add to the interpretation of acute ethanol behavioral sensitivity in Fyn kinase null animals, and identifyFyn-centric gene networks influencing variance in ethanol LORR. Such networks may also inform future design of pharmacotherapies for the treatment and prevention of alcohol use disorders.

Rights

© 2013 Farris, Miles. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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VCU Pharmacology and Toxicology Publications

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