Glutamate-mediated transmission, alcohol, and alcoholism

Glutamate-mediated neurotransmission may be involved in the range of adapti ve changes in brain which occur after ethanol administration in laboratory animals, and in chronic alcoholism in human cases. Excitatory amino acid tr ansmission is modulated by a complex system of receptors and other effecter s, the efficacy of which can be profoundly affected by altered gene or prot ein expression. Local variations in receptor composition may underlie intri nsic regional variations in susceptibility to pathological change. Equally, ethanol use and abuse may bring about alterations in receptor subunit expr ession as the essence of the adaptive response. Such considerations may und erlie the regional localization characteristic of the pathogenesis of alcoh olic brain damage, or they may form part of the homeostatic change that con stitutes the neural substrate for alcohol dependence. (C) 2000 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd. All rights reserved.