Community | February 04, 2010 | 27 comments

Chronic High Doses of Cannabinoids Promote Hippocampal Neurogenesis

source: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2641371/chronic_high_doses_of_cannabinoids.html?cat=58

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Active ingredient in cannabis may promote the generation of new neurons in the brain.

"The recent discovery that the hippocampus is able to generate new neurons throughout a human's lifespan has changed the way we think about the mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and drug addiction," says Wen Jian and colleagues in a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 2005.

It appears that cannabinoids are able to modulate pain, nausea, vomiting, epilepsy, ischemic stroke, cerebral trauma, multiple sclerosis, tumors, and many other disorders. Cannabinoids act on two types of receptors, the CB1 receptors (found mainly in the brain) and the CB2 receptors (found mainly in the immune system). The CB1 receptor is one of the most abundant G protein coupled receptors in the mammalian brain and it accounts for most, if not all, of the centrally mediated effects of cannabinoids. Cannabionoid receptors are evolutionarily conserved amoung various vertebrates and invertebrates which have been separate for 500 million years.

Hippocampal neurogenesis is suppressed following chronic administration of the major drugs of abuse (including opiates, alcohol, nicotine, and cocaine). However, CB1-knockout mice display significantly decreased hippocampal neurogenesis, suggesting that CB1 receptors activated by endogenous, plant-derived, or synthetic cannabinoids may promote hippocampal neurogenesis.

Wen Jiang and colleagues have given the first evidence suggesting that both embryonic and adult hippocampal neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PCs) express CB1 receptors. Cannabinoids can regulate the proliferation of hippocampal NS/PCs by acting on CB1 receptors. They found that both the synthetic cannabinoid HU210 and the endocannabinoid anandamide profoundly promote embryonic hippocampal NS/PC proliferation.

Chronic, but not acute, HU210 significantly increases the number of newborn hippocampal neurons in adult rats by promoting NS/PC proliferation. These promoting effects are not the outcome of hippocampal neuronal death, as no neuronal loss or dying hippocampal neurons were detected following chronic HU210 injection. A significant increase was observed in the hipoppocampal newborn neurons of mice following twice-daily HU210 injection for 10 days.

It has been shown that acute, high doses of cannabinoids produce anxiety-like effects in rats and depression-like effects in mice. But chronic administration of high, but not low, doses of HU210 exerts anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects. This suggests that cannabinoids are the only illicit drug that can promote adult hippocampal neurogenesis following chronic administration. "This increase in hippocampal neurogenesis underlies the mechanism of anxiolytic- and andtidepressant-like effects produced by a high dose chronic HU210 treatment."


http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2641371/chronic_high_doses_of_cannabino...

http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/2010/02/03/Chronic-High-Doses-Cannabin...

- Article from Associated Content.
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    Community,   Make Marijuana Matter
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27 comments // Chronic High Doses of Cannabinoids Promote Hippocampal Neurogenesis

  • ryan8566
  • ilikeike
    • 0
      ilikeike  

    • Liberals are everywhere these days, by liberals i mean people that realize they themselves are the only ones that are going to make their lives better. Conservatives.... not so much.

    • 2 years ago
  • deathmetalbrian
  • bansheewail
  • flipriza
  • CalgarC
  • sleepyboy
    • 0
      sleepyboy  

    • Haha, its funny because I remember taking a psychology class like two years ago in college and my teacher had told us that she was part of a study of the effects of thc in the brain and had told us that the research concluded with that, thc helps reroute neurons and stuff and like a week later the lab where she did her research was shut down due to some investigation that she wouldn't talk about. Herb is the best medicine, natural and not lethal.

    • 2 years ago
  • hunzedog
  • 02
  • Progresshiv
  • PressCore
    • +9
      PressCore  

    • This same article was published on Current.com at least 6 months ago, and I wrote a comment on it then also. In my understanding of the term, Neurogenesis means that cannabinoid ingestion will interact with the brains receptors meant to process cannabinoids, and that the result will be more hippocampus cells. When you consider that the hippocampus is a human's "black box" flight recorder, and that our personalities / quality of life are directly dependent on our recordable memory, then this is a blessing. The Hippocampus is made up of only 20,000 brain cells, which have a critical function. Brain cells can die, so anything that can regenerate them is nothing less than a miracle. Don't forget that Cannabis was likely around long,before humans evolved on this Earth, and that for the past 60.000 years of modern cro magnon human history,humans have been interacting with the herb in Africa, China, the Amazon etc.. Cannabis is listed as one of the oldest Chinese medicinal herbs in their pharmacopeia dating back 4,000 years since it was recorded in print. I suspect that with the herb's proliferation throughout India, and China, it was likely the sacramental use of it which inspired, then promoted Buddhism. Anyone who's had experience with it as a sedative/anesthetic/hypnotic substance can tell you there's a whole lot more to the herb than what meets the eye. The more researchers examine it's medicinal uses, the more miraculous treatments they discover it's good for. And once a mind has been opened properly, you can't ever close it again. Why would you want to ? The universe is expanding, and by opening your mind, you're at a parallel angle to it, and thus one with its harmony. Aka, at Peace.

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
  • Confucius
    • -1
      Confucius  

    • its unclear in the language of the article whether cannabinoids promote hippocampal neurogenesis or are simply less bad for you than "other illicit drugs".

    • 2 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • +3
      Vierotchka  
    • Confucius:

      Try reading the headline, then - it is quite clear:

      Chronic High Doses of Cannabinoids Promote Hippocampal Neurogenesis

      What part of "promote" did you not understand? I think you need to take high doses of cannabinoids in a chronic manner. :)

    • 2 years ago
  • Confucius
  • BIGDADDYMELVIN
  • Confucius
  • Progresshiv
  • Conniepae
  • pandaman2105
  • nursediesel
    • +4
      nursediesel  

    • I think it's so selfish to keep this medicinal herb from helping people in pain and discomfort when it does help. Why waste the chance to be pain free. No one should have to suffer in useless chronic or acute pain. Quality of life could be much improved.

    • 2 years ago
  • medHead
    • +5
      medHead  

    • I speak from true experience, after severe stroke I lost 20% of brain and half my eyesight. Thankful to be here today I can say cannibus is medicine!

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
    • 0
      Conniepae  
    • medHead:

      Thanks for participating in the conversation. People must start standing up. If ordinary Americans stand up, maybe we can get the 'madness' to end. We can not afford to continue the madness. It's time to come out of the closet and stand up!

    • 2 years ago
  • blackheartman
  • kurthsb27
    • +8
      kurthsb27  

    • you see something like this everyday, you'd think if the government truly did care about people and not money and the corporation and criminals who profit from prohibition.

      to bad every ones minds are fucked up from years of propaganda demonizing a plant that grows naturally on earth and is one of the mildest drugs in the world.

    • 2 years ago
  • Conniepae
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