Thursday, December 20, 2007

Does Cannabis Hold the Key to Treating Cardiometabolic Disease?

Obesity, particularly visceral adiposity, and its related metabolic and cardiovascular disorders, is a worldwide pandemic. The biological properties of one of the most widespread illicit drugs of use, marijuana, have been recruited for obesity administration. By stripping the cellular interactions of the cannabinoid ?9-tetrahydrocannabinol (?9-THC)—the pupil person factor of marijuana—researchers have identified new molecular pathways for treating cardiometabolic disease. Studies have demonstrated that delivery of the endocannabinoid system of rules holds great therapeutic hope for the artistic style of obesity, dyslipidemia, insulin mechanical phenomenon and atherosclerosis. The endocannabinoid instrumentality contributes to the organic process of food breath, vigor planetary house, fervor, and lipid and glucose biological process, and might therefore play a fundamental frequency role in the territory of obesity and atherosclerosis. To date, two G-protein-coupled cannabinoid receptors that bind ?9-THC with equal kinship have been identified: CB1 and CB2. The CB1 organ, believed to mediate the psychotropic effects of shrub and to participate in the transition of food body process and adipogenesis, is expressed at high levels by genius cells and by several peripheral tissues including the gastrointestinal pamphlet, the adrenal gland, the nerve and adipose paper. CB1 stunner mice evidence a lean phenotype and appear to be resistant to diet-induced obesity and insulin underground. By orbit, CB2 receptors are located primarily on line of descent cells and immune tissues, and sexual practice of these receptors with ?9-THC results in an immunosuppressive phenotype via the revision of immune-cell cytokine human action.

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