A single-cell genomic atlas for the effects of chronic ethanol exposure in the mouse dorsal striatum

In our study of AUD, we used single-nuclei RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq; n = 86,715 cells) to examine the impact of chronic intermittent ethanol exposure on the dorsal striatum in C57BL/6 male and female mice. We detected 462 differentially expressed genes at FDR < 0.05, the majority of which were mapped to spiny projection neurons (SPNs), the most prominent cell type in the striatum. Gene co-expression network analysis and functional annotation of differentially expressed genes revealed down-regulation of postsynaptic intracellular signaling cascades specifically in canonical SPNs. Inflammation-related genes were down-regulated across many striatal cell types. Gene set enrichment analyses also pointed to altered states of rare cell types, including the induction of angiogenesis-related genes in vascular cells