Lessons from large-scale gene profiling of the liver in alcoholic liver disease

This review examines the studies pertaining to large-scale gene profiling of liver cells and the whole liver as performed with the aid of macro- or microarray gene detection technology under the conditions of alcohol-induced liver injury. The review emphasizes the variability of the data as a function of strain, species, and model of alcohol-induced liver injury employed in different studies. Further, the review highlights the importance of determining if changes in transcriptome expression are parallelled by changes in proteome and metabolome of the liver. On the basis of such data, models can be constructed to unravel new mechanistic aspects of alcohol-induced liver injury and to design novel therapies for alcoholic liver disease.