Taylor Autumn, Nweke Amanda, Vincent Veniesha, Oke Marvellous, Kulkarni Praveen, Ferris Craig F
Department of Biology, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, United States.
Center for Translational NeuroImaging, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States.
Front Neurosci. 2023 Mar 6;17:1139309. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1139309. eCollection 2023.
The medical and recreational use of cannabis has increased in the United States. Its chronic use can have detrimental effects on the neurobiology of the brain-effects that are age-dependent. This was an exploratory study looking at the effects of chronically inhaled vaporized cannabis on brain structure in adult female mice.
Adult mice were exposed daily to vaporized cannabis (10.3% THC and 0.05% CBD) or placebo for 21 days. Following cessation of treatment mice were examined for changes in brain structure using voxel-based morphometry and diffusion weighted imaging MRI. Data from each imaging modality were registered to a 3D mouse MRI atlas with 139 brain areas.
Mice showed volumetric changes in the forebrain particularly the prefrontal cortex, accumbens, ventral pallidum, and limbic cortex. Many of these same brain areas showed changes in water diffusivity suggesting alterations in gray matter microarchitecture.
These data are consistent with much of the clinical findings on cannabis use disorder. The sensitivity of the dopaminergic system to the daily exposure of vaporized cannabis raises concerns for abuse liability in drug naïve adult females that initiate chronic cannabis use.
在美国，大麻的医疗和娱乐用途有所增加。长期使用大麻会对大脑的神经生物学产生有害影响，且这些影响与年龄有关。这是一项探索性研究，旨在观察长期吸入雾化大麻对成年雌性小鼠大脑结构的影响。
成年小鼠每天暴露于雾化大麻（10.3% 四氢大麻酚和0.05% 大麻二酚）或安慰剂中，持续21天。治疗停止后，使用基于体素的形态学测量和扩散加权成像磁共振成像（MRI）检查小鼠大脑结构的变化。来自每种成像方式的数据被注册到一个具有139个脑区的三维小鼠MRI图谱中。
小鼠前脑出现体积变化，特别是前额叶皮质、伏隔核、腹侧苍白球和边缘皮质。许多相同的脑区显示出水扩散率的变化，表明灰质微结构发生改变。
这些数据与大麻使用障碍的许多临床发现一致。多巴胺能系统对每日暴露于雾化大麻的敏感性，引发了对开始长期使用大麻的未接触过毒品的成年雌性滥用可能性的担忧。
