Cited by 105Stress Responses and CortisolSubstance Abuse Treatment and OutcomesAlcohol Consumption and Health Effects

Stress–response pathways are altered in the hippocampus of chronic alcoholics

Open access
McClintick, Jeanette N., Xuei, Xiaoling, Tischfield, Jay A., Goate, Alison, Foroud, Tatiana, Wetherill, Leah, Ehringer, Marissa A., Edenberg, Howard J.·2013·Alcohol

Abstract

The chronic high-level alcohol consumption seen in alcoholism leads to dramatic effects on the hippocampus, including decreased white matter, loss of oligodendrocytes and other glial cells, and inhibition of neurogenesis. Examining gene expression in post mortem hippocampal tissue from 20 alcoholics and 19 controls allowed us to detect differentially expressed genes that may play a role in the risk for alcoholism or whose expression is modified by chronic consumption of alcohol. We identified 639 named genes whose expression significantly differed between alcoholics and controls at a False Discovery Rate (FDR) ≤ 0.20; 52% of these genes differed by at least 1.2-fold. Differentially expressed genes included the glucocorticoid receptor and the related gene FK506 binding protein 5 (FKBP5), UDP glycosyltransferase 8 (UGT8), urea transporter (SLC14A1), zinc transporter (SLC39A10), Interleukin 1 receptor type 1 (IL1R1), thioredoxin interacting protein (TXNIP), and many metallothioneins. Pathways related to inflammation, hypoxia, and stress showed activation, and pathways that play roles in neurogenesis and myelination showed decreases. The cortisol pathway dysregulation and increased inflammation identified here are seen in other stress-related conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and most likely play a role in addiction. Many of the detrimental effects on the hippocampus appear to be mediated through NF-κB signaling. Twenty-four of the differentially regulated genes were previously identified by genome-wide association studies of alcohol use disorders; this raises the potential interest of genes not normally associated with alcoholism, such as suppression of tumorigenicity 18 (ST18), BCL2-associated athanogene 3 (BAG3), and von Willebrand factor (VWF).

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.alcohol.2013.07.002

Cites

96 of 96 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
McClintick, J. N., Xuei, X., Tischfield, J. A., Goate, A., Foroud, T., Wetherill, L., Ehringer, M. A., & Edenberg, H. J.
Affiliations
  • Indiana University School of Medicine (US)
  • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
  • University of Colorado Boulder (US)
Corresponding author
Edenberg, Howard J.
Venue
Alcohol
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2013-11
Volume
47
Issue
7
Pages
505-515
ISSN
0741-8329 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2157152722
Cited by
105
References
96
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 8
FWCI
3.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Alcohol (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • IUScholarWorks (Indiana University) (submittedVersion)
  • Purdue University Indianapolis (Indiana University) (submittedVersion)
  • PMC
Funders
  • State University of New York
  • Washington University in St. Louis
  • University of Connecticut
  • Virginia Commonwealth University
  • University of Sydney
  • National Institutes of Health
  • SUNY Downstate Medical Center
  • Medical Research Council
  • National Health and Medical Research Council
  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Grant U10AA008401, R01AA012725, R01 AA12725, R28AA012725, U10AA008401)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant U10AA008401)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects
Keywords
chronic alcoholism, hippocampus, gene expression, stress response, glucocorticoid receptor, FKBP5, NF-κB signaling, inflammation, hypoxia, neurogenesis, myelination, metallothionein, addiction, alcoholism, postmortem brain
MeSH terms
Adult, Aged, Alcoholism, Hypoxia, Female, Hippocampus, Humans, Inflammation, Male, Middle Aged, NF-kappa B, Neurogenesis, Alcoholics, Transcriptome, Gene Ontology

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review