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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2016 Aug 1;40(9):1802–1816. doi: 10.1111/acer.13168

Figure 7. Ethanol-induced cell swelling.

Figure 7

A subset of astrocytes responds to ethanol exposure with an increase in cell volume, which can lead to crowding of molecules in the extracellular space, changes in volume transmission and possibly neurotoxicity. In addition, ethanol-induced cell swelling may lead to impaired communication through gap junction channels, reduced clearance of neuroactive substances and decreased glucose transport (illustrated with white x-marks) (Abdul Muneer et al., 2011), thereby indirectly affecting neurotransmission. Importantly, cell swelling can also promote the release of taurine, which appears to play a key role in the dopamine-elevating properties of ethanol. See text for further details. AQ4=aquaporin-4.