. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Apr 21.

Published in final edited form as: Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2011 Jul 25;35(12):2139–2151. doi: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2011.01569.x

Table 3.

Effects of chronic ethanol feeding and treatment with N-acetylcysteine on pro-sphingolipid gene expression in liver

GENE	Chow	C-TEN	C-TEN−NAC	Et-TEN	Et-TEN+NAC	F-Ratio	P-Value
CERS1	0.02521^a ±0.00196	0.02434^b ±0.00135	0.03277^b ^* ±0.00217	0.02970 ±0.0022	0.03398^a-^* ^b ^ ±0.00199	18.85	0.0008
CERS2	0.2929 ± 0.069	0.6555 ± 0.1658	0.2738 ± 0.1064	0.4751 ± 0.1121	0.5806 ± 0.1323	7.297	0.12
CERS4	0.02588^a ±0.002796	0.02517^a ±0.0009467	0.02825^b ±0.002721	0.03106 ±0.001883	0.04335^a ^**; ^b ^ ±0.003032	27.00	<0.0001
CERD2	0.0006725 ± 0.000228	0.0009465 ± 0.0002361	0.0004346 ± 0.0001164	0.001056 ± 0.00025	0.001797 ± 0.001044	4.137
CERD3	0.2567^a ±0.0234	0.2740^b ±0.0249	0.5914^a-^; ^b ^ ±0.0909	0.5428^a-^*; ^b ^* ±0.0482	0.4960^a-^; ^b ^* ±0.0328	38.30	<0.0001
SMPD1	0.1037 ± 0.0215	0.1749 ± 0.0367	0.1015 ± 0.0331	0.1404 ± 0.0237	0.1345 ± 0.0347	3.198
SMPD3	0.05598^a ± 005982	0.09191^a-^* ± 0.00748	0.1036^a-^** ± 0.0105	0.09724^a-^* ± 0.00846	0.08731 ± 0.00896	4.04	0.0049
SPTLC1	0.0000187^a ±0.0000059	0.00000847 ± 0.0000022	0.0000095 ± 0.0000010	0.0000043^a-^* ± 0.0000006	0.0000073 ± 0.0000021	8.354	0.079
SPTLC2	0.001612 ± 0.000984	0.001213 ± 0.000299	0.001224 ± 0.000418	0.00172 ± 0.000561	0.001217 ± 0.000395	1.271
UGCG	1.484 ± 0.3261	0.7152 ± 0.0666	0.9944 ± 0.1719	0.9889 ± 0.2521	0.8111 ±0.0894	6.097
GM3SYN	1.185^a ± 0.136	1.212^a ±0.083	1.396^b ±0.094	3.436^a ^* ^b ^* ±0.207	2.327^a ^***br/>±0.169	55.92	<0.0001

Effects of chronic ethanol exposure and NAC treatment on pro-ceramide gene expression in liver. RNA extracted from liver was reverse transcribed and the cDNAs were used to measure ceramide synthases (CERS), N-acylsphingosine amidohydrolase (ceramidase; CERD2-neutral; CERD3-alkaline), serine palmitoyltransferases (SPTLC), sphingomyelin phosphodiesterases (SMPD), UDP-glucose ceramide glucosyltransferase (UGCG), and GM3SYN= GM3 synthase expression by qPCR using gene-specific primers (Supplementary Table 1).

Abbreviations: C=Control; Et=Ethanol; TEN=Transenteral nutrition; NAC=N-acetylcysteine. Gene expression levels were normalized to 18S rRNA measured in the same samples. Results depict mean ± S.E.M. of mRNA /18S rRNA (×10⁻⁶) calculated for each group. Inter group statistical comparisons were made by one-way ANOVA with the Kurskall-Wallis post hoc test.

Superscripted letters indicate inter-group comparisons that are statistically significant;

<0.05;

^**

P<0.01;

^***

P<0.001 relative group with superscripted letter but no asterisk