Gender’s emerging role in the Endocannabinoid System
Saturday, October 17th, 2009Women and men percieve and respond to cannabis differently. Interesting gender differences are begining to be uncovered through animal studies, drug surveys, and clinical trials. Here are a few differences that have been published recently:
- Notably, estrogen can attenuate or inhibit various cannabinoid induced homeostatic changes such as appetite, body temperature, and brain activity.In other words, estrogen may allow women to be less susceptible to effects from cannabis or other cannabinoid medicines. Implying women can handle the effects of the drug better than men. Shel Silverstein‘s “Smoke Off” provides a good analogy.
- In animal studies (Review, Original research Article) on mice without the type 1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1), there appears to be a gender dependent phenotype. Male mice develop “strange” bones earlier, resulting from the removal of the CB1 receptor. In the first few weeks of life ,male mice without this receptor have remarkably higher bone volume. However, both genders develop severe age related osteoporosis later in life. It is also interesting to note, that this gender disparity is not observed in all transgenic mice without cannabinoid receptors–only in mice missing the CB1 receptor. Mice without the CB2 receptor have equally bad bones; gender independent effects.
- The ‘putative’ cannabinoid receptor GPR55, also displays similar gender dependent effects. When knocked out or removed from mice, the males have higher bone mass or volume compared to females.
- Another study completed at Temple Medical School in Philadelphia also showed sex dependent differences in mice without CB1 receptors. These differences were in reward seeking behaviors when it comes to cocaine and food. Basically male mice without CB1 self administer less cocaine and and less sweet food (Ensure). This research suggests that the cannabinoid system modulates appetite differently between genders.
- Drug abuse surveys have shown that women and men endorse different issues when it comes to cannabis use and abuse
As new cannabinid drugs are brought to market, and cannabis is becoming available in pharmacies around the world; more research is needed which tracks potential gender differences in response to cannabinoids.
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Thanks,
Jahan
