“…That excessive alcohol consumption produces neuroinflammation has been inferred from observations of increased expression of pro-inflammatory genes and cytokines following alcohol exposure (Crews et al, 2006c; He and Crews, 2008; Knapp and Crews, 1999; Qin et al, 2008), while other groups have shown that peripheral inflammation promotes increased ethanol consumption (Agrawal et al, 2011; Blednov et al, 2011). Furthermore, in animal models of chronic alcohol intake, innate immune signaling cascades are induced by ethanol activation of the pro-inflammatory transcription factor, nuclear factor-kappa-B (Crews et al, 2006a; Crews et al, 2011; Valles et al, 2004).…”