Fig. 2.

Acute binge ethanol withdrawal increases brain pro-inflammatory gene expression. a, b Time course of blood alcohol concentrations and brain TNFα and Ccl2 mRNA following acute binge ethanol: Mice were gavaged with ethanol (6 g/kg, 25% v/v) and tail blood was collected at 1, 6, 12, and 18 h to determine BACs (dashed line—left axis). Brain mRNA was collected at 0, 6, 12, 18, or 24 h and TNFα mRNA and Ccl2 mRNA were assessed (solid line—right axis). Note that TNFα and Ccl2 mRNA increased during withdrawal when BACs dropped. c, d Ethanol dose-response curve: Mice were gavaged with ethanol (3, 4.5, or 6 g/kg, 25% v/v) or water. Tail blood was collected 1 h post-gavage to assess BACs (dashed line—right axis). At 18 h post-gavage, brain mRNA was collected and TNFα and Ccl2 transcript levels were assessed (gray bars, left axis). Data are presented as mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05. n = 5–8/group