Prenatal exposure to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, may affect fetal lung development and function. It could also lead to chronic respiratory conditions like asthma later in life. The corresponding study was published in the American Journal of Physiology- Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.
As legislation and perception around the safety of cannabis change, use of the plant during pregnancy is becoming more widespread. Understanding more about how cannabis exposure affects offspring development is thus key for public health.
In the current study, researchers investigated the effects of prenatal THC exposure on offspring’s respiratory health. To do so, they compared the effects of daily edibles containing either THC or a placebo on female rhesus macaques both during gestation and postnatally. Serial in utero magnetic resonance imaging was carried out during pregnancy, and infants underwent pulmonary function testing at 6 months of age, as well as tissue collection for molecular analysis.
Ultimately, the researchers found infants born to mothers consuming THC had significantly smaller lung volume, something that started during fetal development and remained through to 6 months of age. Prenatal THC exposure also altered lung gene expression and DNA methylation.
The findings suggest that prenatal THC exposure may have an important influence on future respiratory health and that more research on humans is needed, wrote the researchers in their study. Nevertheless, the data from this study will help guide patient counseling on cannabis use, they added.
“This is certainly something that raises alarm bells, because children born with decreased lung function at birth are more likely to follow a lower trajectory of lung function as they age, increasing their risk to develop childhood asthma and respiratory diseases as adults. We know nicotine use in pregnancy can increase the risk of asthma in offspring, but no one has thought that about prenatal cannabis exposure until now,” said senior study author, Eliot Spindel, M.D., Ph.D, professor in the Division of Neuroscience at Oregon Health & Science University, in a press release.
Sources: EurekAlert, American Journal of Physiology- Lng Cellular and Molecular Physiology
