Summary: A new study found that prenatal exposure to synthetic cannabinoids, which activate the same brain receptors as marijuana, leads to long-term sleep and health issues in offspring, particularly in adult males. Researchers observed that male rats experienced more severe sleep fragmentation, while females showed greater cardiovascular dysfunction. The study highlights potential risks of cannabis use during pregnancy, with effects persisting into adulthood.
Key Takeaways:
- Sleep Disruption in Males: Male offspring exposed to cannabinoids in the womb experienced significant sleep fragmentation and reduced total sleep time as adults.
- Sex-Specific Health Effects: Prenatal cannabis exposure led to cardiovascular issues in females and increased susceptibility to panic attacks in males, demonstrating different outcomes between sexes.
- Long-Term Impact of Prenatal Cannabis Exposure: The study underscores the lasting effects of prenatal cannabis exposure, affecting sleep quality and cardiorespiratory function into adulthood.
Scientists who exposed pregnant rats to a synthetic cannabinoid that activates the same receptors in the brain as marijuana detected effects of the drug on their offspring—such as deteriorating sleep quality—and showed that these adverse effects persisted into adulthood.
The consequences were different in males and females, with sleep quality deteriorating most in males. Additionally, the study detected cardiovascular problems in females and augmented susceptibility to panic attacks in males.
An article on the study is published in the American Journal of Physiology – Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology. The findings serve as a precautionary note on the medicinal or recreational use of cannabis during pregnancy, the authors conclude.
Effects of Intrauterine Exposure to the Cannabinoid
The study was conducted with FAPESP’s support by researchers affiliated with São Paulo State University (UNESP) and the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil. Previous research by the same group demonstrated the effects of intrauterine exposure to the cannabinoid on newborn and young rats.
“We observed long-term alterations to behavior and above all to cardiorespiratory function in the animals that were exposed to the cannabinoid while they were still in the womb. The alterations were different in males and females,” says Luis Gustavo Patrone, PhD, first author of the article, in a release.
In contrast with the newborns in the previous study, the adult individuals (80 days old) analyzed in this latest trial did not display alterations to baseline respiration, possibly owing to some unknown compensation mechanism during postnatal development.
A finding that did not vary from one study to the other was that intrauterine exposure to the cannabinoid increased the adult males’ respiratory sensitivity to carbon dioxide (CO2). The opposite outcome was observed in the females.
“In humans, heightened sensitivity to CO2 can trigger panic attacks with shortness of breath and a false suffocation alarm. In the animals in our experiment, this type of behavior consisted of attempts to escape from the chamber,” says Luciane Gargaglioni, PhD, last author of the article and a professor at FCAV-UNESP, in a release.
Cardiovascular Function and Sleep
The researchers also analyzed cardiovascular factors and sleep quality in the animals, concluding that exposure to the cannabinoid during fetal development led to a propensity to experience cardiovascular dysfunction in adulthood, with hypertension and tachycardia being most frequently identified in females.
Sleep quality deteriorated most in males, which experienced sleep fragmentation due to frequent wakefulness episodes. “They slept less, considering the sum total of sleep episodes,” Patrone says in a release. Sleep quality also deteriorated in females, but less severely.
“Most scientific studies assess parameters in males only, assuming that the results will be valid for both sexes, but in our lab we always make the distinction, and the responses are often quite different, as in this study,” Gargaglioni says in a release.
A possible explanation for the difference between outcomes in males and females may be the action of sex hormones. In females, estrogen is known to be neuroprotective and may ward off the harmful effects of the cannabinoid on their brains.
In addition, the mammalian respiratory system is known to develop more slowly in males, occurring mainly when testosterone levels peak during masculinization and formation of sexual organs. Later maturation of the lungs, and of the brain regions responsible for controlling respiratory function, probably made the males more vulnerable to the adverse effects of the cannabinoid.
The authors point out that observed postpartum maternal behavior did not exhibit differences in maternal care of offspring due to exposure to the cannabinoid during pregnancy compared with the control group, which did not receive the substance.
Photo caption: Males and females exhibited different cardiorespiratory and sleep quality outcomes after being exposed to a synthetic cannabinoid in the womb.
Photo credit: illustration: Luis Gustavo Patrone/UNESP
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