title: Effects of chronic ethanol administration on the expression levels of neurotrophic factors in the rat hippocampus.
abstract: Chronic ethanol consumption has adverse effects on the central nervous system. Hippocampus is one of the target sites of ethanol neurotoxicity. Hippocampal damage is known to result in impairment of learning and memory. This study was aimed to determine whether chronic ethanol consumption could alter the expression levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) mRNAs in the hippocampus. Male Wistar rats were given unrestricted access to a liquid diet containing 5% (v/v) ethanol as the sole fluid source for 19 weeks beginning at 10 weeks of age. The expression levels of BDNF and GDNF mRNAs in the hippocampus were analyzed by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis. The present study revealed that chronic ethanol consumption did not result in significant changes in the expression levels of BDNF and GDNF mRNAs. Our present results showed no significant alteration in the expression of these neurotrophic factors; these results will lead to further studies to examine the possible alterations in the gene expression of various neurotrophins that are related to hippocampal functions including learning and memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Japan.
authors.forename: Hanayo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Takanori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miki
authors.forename: Kyoung-Youl
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Toshifumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yokoyama
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kuma
authors.forename: He
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Hong-Peng
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yoshiki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Ippei
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Yamaoka
authors.forename: Kazutoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fusumada
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Imagawa
authors.forename: Zhi-Yu
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Yoshiki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
mesh_terms: D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000633:toxicity*; D004032:Diet; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D000431:Ethanol / Q000633:toxicity*; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000187:drug effects; D051100:Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D051100:Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000431:Ethanol