White Matter transcriptome in chronic alcoholism

ABSTRACT: Chronic alcohol consumption can lead to alchohol-related brain damage (ARBD). Despite the well known acute effects of alcohol the mechanism responsible for chronic brain damage is largely unknown. Pathologically the major change is the loss of white matter while neuronal loss is mild and restricted to a few areas such as the prefrontal cortex. In order to improve our understanding of ARBD pathogenesis we used microarrays to explore the white matter transcriptome of alcoholics and controls. Our results suggest that hepatic encephalopathy, along with two confounders, gray matter contamination and low RNA quality, are major drivers of gene expression in ARBD. All three exceeded the effects of alcohol itself. In particular, low quality RNA samples were characterized by an upregulation of prote

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

SUBMITTER: Greg Sutherland 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-53808 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress