Fig. 1

Acute binge ethanol biphasically and dose dependently changes microglial gene expression. a Time course of blood alcohol concentrations and brain microglial 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 microglial Iba1 and CD68 mRNA levels were measured (solid lines—right axis). Note that Iba1 and CD68 mRNA decreased when BACs were high and increased when BACs dropped. b 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 microglial Iba1 and CD68 mRNA levels were measured (light and dark gray bars, left axis). Ethanol dose dependently altered Iba1 and CD68 mRNA. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05 for CD68, ^† p < 0.05 for Iba1. n = 5–7/group