title: Gene expression profile analysis of rat cerebellum under acute alcohol intoxication.
abstract: Acute alcohol intoxication, a common disease causing damage to the central nervous system (CNS) has been primarily studied on the aspects of alcohol addiction and chronic alcohol exposure. The understanding of gene expression change in the CNS during acute alcohol intoxication is still lacking. We established a model for acute alcohol intoxication in SD rats by oral gavage. A rat cDNA microarray was used to profile mRNA expression in the cerebella of alcohol-intoxicated rats (experimental group) and saline-treated rats (control group). A total of 251 differentially expressed genes were identified in response to acute alcohol intoxication, in which 208 of them were up-regulated and 43 were down-regulated. Gene ontology (GO) term enrichment analysis and pathway analysis revealed that the genes involved in the biological processes of immune response and endothelial integrity are among the most severely affected in response to acute alcohol intoxication. We discovered five transcription factors whose consensus binding motifs are overrepresented in the promoter region of differentially expressed genes. Additionally, we identified 20 highly connected hub genes by co-expression analysis, and validated the differential expression of these genes by real-time quantitative PCR. By determining novel biological pathways and transcription factors that have functional implication to acute alcohol intoxication, our study substantially contributes to the understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the pathology of acute alcoholism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Heilongjiang Provincial Hospital, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Guangkuan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China.
authors.forename: Yuehong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jing
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China. Electronic address: zhaoqingjie2013@163.com.
authors.forename: Qingjie
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D020268:Alcohol-Induced Disorders, Nervous System / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000633:toxicity*; D008297:Male; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000502:physiology; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D014157:Transcription Factors; D000431:Ethanol
keywords: Acute alcohol intoxication; Central nervous system; Gene expression profiling; Microarray