“…In line with these observations, expression of the mature form of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein has been demonstrated to be elevated at time points when specific brain regions are less sensitive to the deleterious effects of ethanol, such as the cortex at postnatal day (P) 21 and the striatum at P14 (Heaton, Paiva, Madorsky, Mayer, & Moore, 2003). BDNF protein levels have also been shown to be increased in the hippocampus after neonatal ethanol exposure (Heaton, Mitchell, Paiva, & Walker, 2000), suggesting a protective role for BDNF (Lindvall, Kokaia, Bengzon, Elmér, & Kokaia, 1994) in addition to its role in both synaptic plasticity (Chapleau, Larimore, Theibert, & Pozzo-Miller, 2009) and dendritic development via its receptor, tropomyosin-related kinase B (TrkB), a member of the receptor tyrosine kinase family (Mooney & Miller, 2011; Yacoubian & Lo, 2000). Interestingly, BDNF mRNA does not appear to be present in the striatum of embryonic or neonatal mice (Baquet, Gorski, & Jones, 2004).…”