Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
BMC Psychiatry. 2024 Oct 11;24(1):676. doi: 10.1186/s12888-024-06043-0.
Experimental studies indicate that phytocannabinoids have immune-modulatory properties. However, the effects of chronic cannabis use (CCU) in adolescents on their immune cells have been scarcely investigated to date, although CCU is increasingly observed in this age group.
In this study, we analyzed DNA methylation and gene expression of immune cell markers in whole-blood samples of adolescent CCU-outpatients and non-cannabis-using (NCU) controls (n = 14 vs. n = 15, mean age = 16.1 ± 1.3 years). Site-specific DNA methylation values were used to calculate A) proportion estimates of circulating white blood cell (WBC) types and B) mean DNA methylation values of common immune cell markers (CD4, CD8A, CD19, FCGR3A, CD14, FUT4, MPO), whose gene expression levels were additionally determined.
CCU adolescents had a lower estimated proportion of B cells compared to NCU subjects. An originally observed higher proportion of granulocytes in CCU subjects, however, was attenuated when controlling for past-year tobacco use. The observed differences in mean DNA methylation and gene expression of immune cell markers were not statistically significant.
The results of our explorative study indicate that CCU in adolescents is associated with altered levels of circulating WBCs. Further studies with larger cohorts are warranted to confirm our findings and to provide insights regarding their functional consequences.
实验研究表明，植物大麻素具有免疫调节特性。然而，迄今为止，人们对青少年长期吸食大麻（CCU）对其免疫细胞的影响研究甚少，尽管在该年龄段越来越多地观察到 CCU。
在这项研究中，我们分析了青少年 CCU 门诊患者和非大麻使用（NCU）对照者（n=14 对 n=15，平均年龄 16.1±1.3 岁）全血样本中的免疫细胞标志物的 DNA 甲基化和基因表达。使用特定于位点的 DNA 甲基化值来计算 A）循环白细胞（WBC）类型的比例估计值和 B）常见免疫细胞标志物（CD4、CD8A、CD19、FCGR3A、CD14、FUT4、MPO）的平均 DNA 甲基化值，这些标志物的基因表达水平也进行了测定。
与 NCU 受试者相比，CCU 青少年的 B 细胞比例较低。然而，当控制过去一年的吸烟情况时，CCU 受试者中观察到的粒细胞比例较高的情况得到了缓解。免疫细胞标志物的平均 DNA 甲基化和基因表达的观察到的差异没有统计学意义。
我们的探索性研究结果表明，青少年 CCU 与循环 WBC 水平改变有关。需要更大队列的进一步研究来证实我们的发现，并提供有关其功能后果的见解。
