Experience with dronabinol consumption facilitated a stimulant effect of alcohol and affected alcohol-related changes in frontal cortical endocannabinoid levels in male rats.

Combined use of cannabis and alcohol is common in adolescents. However, the extent to which such polydrug exposure affects the brain and behaviors remains under-investigated in preclinical studies. This study tested the hypothesis that combined exposure of Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis, and alcohol will have additive effects on cognitive impairments and altered endocannabinoid levels in the hippocampus and frontal cortex.

A gene-diet interaction controlling relative intake of dietary carbohydrates and fats.

Objective: Preference for dietary fat vs. carbohydrate varies markedly across free-living individuals. It is recognized that food choice is under genetic and physiological regulation, and that the central melanocortin system is involved.

Joint and separate exposure to alcohol and ∆-tetrahydrocannabinol produced distinct effects on glucose and insulin homeostasis in male rats.

Cannabis and alcohol co-use is common, and the trend may increase further given the current popularity of cannabis legalization. However, the metabolic consequences of such co-use are unclear. Here, we investigated how co-administration of alcohol and ∆-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis, affects body weight and visceral adiposity, and glucose and insulin homeostasis in rats.

Combined ∆-tetrahydrocannabinol and moderate alcohol administration: effects on ingestive behaviors in adolescent male rats.

Rationale: Whereas co-use of alcohol and marijuana is prevalent in adolescents, the effects of such drug co-exposure on ingestive and cognitive behaviors remain largely unexplored. We hypothesized that co-exposure to alcohol and ∆-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive constitute of marijuana, alters feeding behavior and cognition differently from either drug alone.

Methods: Male rats received daily THC (3-20 mg/kg/day) or oil vehicle through subcutaneous injection or consumption of a cookie with access to saccharin or saccharin-sweetened alcohol during adolescence (P30-45).

Chronic moderate alcohol drinking alters insulin release without affecting cognitive and emotion-like behaviors in rats.

Because the consumption of alcoholic beverages prevails in society, its effects on diabetes risk is a subject of interest. Extant literature on this issue often disagrees. Here, we probed the effects of chronic moderate ethanol consumption on glucose metabolism in rats.

Appetite and weight gain suppression effects of alcohol depend on the route and pattern of administration in Long Evans rats.

Ethanol can be a food source but its effects on energy balance and contribution to obesity remain inconclusive. In this study, we hypothesized that the effects of ethanol on energy intake and body weight would depend on the administration dose, pattern and the blood ethanol concentration (BEC) time-course. Experiment 1 examined changes in food intake, diet preference, and body weight after saline or ethanol (1 and 3g/kg) injection (IP).

CAPN5 gene silencing by short hairpin RNA interference.

Background: The purpose of this project was to identify short hairpin RNA (shRNA) sequences that can suppress expression of human CAPN5 in which gain-of-function mutants cause autosomal dominant neovascular inflammatory vitreoretinopathy (ADNIV). We created HEK293T cells that stably express an ADNIV disease allele, CAPN5-p.R243L.