Table 1.

Acute ethanol effects on the EC system

Measure	Ethanol exposure	System	Species	Genetic background	Method of analysis	Brain region	Effect	Reference
AEA	50‐mM ethanol, 30 min	In vitro	Mouse	C57BL/6J	Cell and medium extract	HP	↑	Basavarajappa et al., 2008
	8% v/v ethanol in liquid diet, 24‐hr access	Ex vivo	Rat	Sprague–Dawley	Tissue content	AMY	↓	Rubio, McHugh, Fernandez‐Ruiz, Bradshaw, & Walker, 2007
						CPu	↓
						HyTh	↓
						PFC	None
	4 g·kg−1 ethanol, i.p. injection	Ex vivo	Rat	Wistar	Tissue content	Cereb	↓	Ferrer et al., 2007
						HP	↓
						NAc	↓
					Microdialysis	NAc	None
	10% (w/v) ethanol, self‐administration (30 min)	In vivo	Rat	Wistar	Microdialysis	NAc	None	Caille et al., 2007
	4 g·kg−1 ethanol, i.p. injection	In vivo	Rat	Wistar	Microdialysis	NAc	↑	Ceccarini et al., 2013
2‐AG	50‐mM ethanol, 30 min	In vitro	Mouse	C57BL/6J	Cell and medium extract	HP	↑	Basavarajappa et al., 2008
	8% v/v ethanol in liquid diet, 24‐hr access	Ex vivo	Rat	Sprague–Dawley	Tissue content	AMY CPu HyTh PFC	None None None ↓	Rubio et al., 2007
	10% (w/v) ethanol, self‐administration (30 min)	In vivo	Rat	Wistar	Microdialysis	NAc	↑	Caille et al., 2007
CB1	50‐mM ethanol, 30–60 min	In vitro	Mouse	C57BL/6J	Protein	HP	None	Basavarajappa et al., 2008
	4 g·kg−1 ethanol, i.p. injection   4 g·kg−1 ethanol, i.p. injection	Ex vivo   In vivo	Rat     Rat	Wistar     Wistar	mRNA     PET imaging	Cereb     NAc	None     ↑ binding	Ferrer et al., 2007   Ceccarini et al., 2013
	8% v/v ethanol in liquid diet, 24‐hr access	Ex vivo	Rat	Sprague–Dawley	Protein	AMY	↓	Rubio et al., 2009
						HyTh	None
						PFC	↓
						CPu	None
FAAH	8% v/v ethanol in liquid diet, 24‐hr access	Ex vivo	Rat	Sprague–Dawley	Activity/protein	AMY	None	Rubio et al., 2009
						CPu	None
						HyTh	Activity (↓); protein (↑)
						PFC	Activity (↓); protein (none)
	4 g·kg−1 ethanol, i.p. injection	Ex vivo	Rat	Wistar	Activity/mRNA	Cereb	None	Ferrer et al., 2007
						HP	Activity (↓); mRNA (none)
						NAc	None

Abbreviations: 2‐AG, 2‐arachidonyl glycerol; AEA, anandamide; AMY, amygdala; CB₁, cannabinoid receptor 1; Cereb, cerebellum; CPu, caudate putamen; FAAH, fatty acid amide hydrolase; HP, hippocampus; HyTh, hypothalamus; NAc, nucleus accumbens; PFC, prefrontal cortex.