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 Koala Koolio
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Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 7,731
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 Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells
#6970392 - 05/26/07 06:22 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells
Molecules may help young brain cells forge the right connections—but only at the right time and place
By JR Minkel
Natural marijuanalike chemicals may direct key brain cells to make proper connections while in the womb, according to a new study. Researchers report that the molecules, called cannabinoids, serve as guideposts for young cells in the attention and decision-making parts of fetal mouse brains.
The finding may help explain studies showing that the children of mothers who smoked marijuana during pregnancy are slower to process information than their peers (although they are just as intelligent overall). Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, might knock the cell-guiding machinery off course by overstimulating the brain. Researchers, however, say they are still a long way from determining exactly what effects endocannabinoids and THC have on developing human brains.
"I would say yes there is human relevance," says study co-leader and neurobiologist Tibor Harkany of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, "but I cannot prove this, and these findings will not prove this."
Scientists know that particular receptor proteins on human and animal adult brain cells respond to THC-like chemicals, or cannabinoids, which prevent the cells from making strong connections to one another, Harkany says. But they were in the dark about the role of endocannabinoids—the kind made by the brain—during fetal development. So Harkany and his colleagues cultured mouse embryonic brain cells that expressed cannabinoid receptor proteins (CBRs) and exposed them to gradients of synthetic cannabinoids.
The cells withdrew their rootlike feelers, or axons, from the high concentration of cannabinoids; the axons, which seek out and communicate with neighboring cells, veered instead in other directions, the group reports in a paper published online today in Science. In effect, "if you activate the cannabinoid system" of these cells, Harkany says, "it will send a message to the cell that 'I don't want to grow there, I want to grow somewhere else'" and connect to another cell.
The researchers found two groups of brain cells in embryonic mice that carried the CBR proteins for several days during late development. (Mice gestate in 18 or 19 days.) The cells were located in the cortex, the brain region that controls attention and planning in humans and other mammals.
THC would likely affect very similar brain systems in human fetuses, says neuroscientist Yasmin Hurd of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, but its concentration would be much higher than that of any endocannabinoid. "It would have an even more pronounced effect on axonal growth and guidance," she says.
Neuroscientist Ken Mackie of Indiana University, another leader of the new study, says that natural cannabinoids can reach very high concentrations but are secreted by the brain in precise locations. THC would activate CBRs indiscriminately, he says. "The effects of endocannabinoids released in a regulated fashion," he says, "will almost always be different from THC from smoked cannabis."
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=BF17D63B-E7F2-99DF-3E60F38B5570D795&chanID=sa003
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 wilshire
free radical
 
Registered: 05/11/05
Posts: 2,407
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: Koala Koolio]
#6970654 - 05/26/07 07:33 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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marijuana is a chemical now?
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Koala Koolio
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Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 7,731
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: wilshire]
#6971661 - 05/26/07 11:26 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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It's a title aimed at getting the attention of people who won't recognize "THC", clearly.
It sounds slightly less inaccurate because it says "marijuana-like". Though that's still the same as seeing a door knob that looks similar to mine and declaring it similar to my door, I suppose.
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You're not like the others. You like the same things I do. Wax paper, boiled football leather... dog breath. We're not hitch-hiking anymore, we're riding!
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biggysmall
Registered: 04/27/07
Posts: 1,270
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: Koala Koolio]
#6972114 - 05/27/07 12:54 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
marijuana is a chemical now?
its always been a chemical silly
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TMshroom
one
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: biggysmall]
#6972240 - 05/27/07 01:24 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
biggysmall said:
Quote:
marijuana is a chemical now?
its always been a chemical silly
I cant tell whether you're being sarcastic or not :-\
I always thought marijuana was a plant which CONTAINED chemicals, such as THC....I guess i need to go back to school
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biggysmall
Registered: 04/27/07
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: TMshroom]
#6972336 - 05/27/07 02:07 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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its natural marijuana LIKE chemicals.... thc is the active chemical... maby you do need to go to school
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Koala Koolio
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: biggysmall]
#6973788 - 05/27/07 02:03 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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You said marijuana has always been a chemical. Marijuana is not a chemical. As he said, it contains THC. I'm not sure why you've supported your statement with a different argument (regarding the title of the article, rather than your claim that marijuana is a chemical). Answers the question about the sarcasm at least.
This thread is pretty off track.
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You're not like the others. You like the same things I do. Wax paper, boiled football leather... dog breath. We're not hitch-hiking anymore, we're riding!
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OneMoreRobot3021
punky jewster
Registered: 06/06/03
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: biggysmall]
#6973814 - 05/27/07 02:14 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
biggysmall said:
its natural marijuana LIKE chemicals.... thc is the active chemical... maby you do need to go to school
maybe*
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The Drug Policy Alliance  Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
"The psychedelic experience - it has a tremendous force to revivify the spirit, particularly because it is not an ideology. It is not something someone 'figured out.' It is an EXPERIENCE. And this is important to bear in mind." - McKenna.
"We're not mad, we're just doing what we want. You rigid thinkers can't recognize the healthy sanity of that." - Harlan Ellison, "Crackpots"
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TransHumeNism
Self-transformingbio-mech elf
Registered: 03/31/07
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
#6974872 - 05/27/07 07:41 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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I wonder what would happen if one used cannabinoid blockers in utero?
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Turn it up! Serve the Hive..... Feel the groove. I control.... The way you move. I got the skills! Serve the Hive..... Feel the groove. I control.... The way you move.
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SheerTerror
Registered: 11/28/03
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: wilshire]
#6976379 - 05/28/07 03:36 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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lol but its still technically a chem THC is the active ingrediant just like doing coke, smoking meth, drinking a bottle of robotussin, bumping a oc, whatever it is just the active ingrediant does the job.
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SheerTerror
Registered: 11/28/03
Posts: 1,692
Loc: New England
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: wilshire]
#6976380 - 05/28/07 03:38 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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*active chemical that is, i been dxmin here all night, but yea its no more natural then a freshly cooked batch of crack
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fastfred
Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 4,326
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: SheerTerror]
#6976487 - 05/28/07 05:42 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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> its no more natural then a freshly cooked batch of crack
Um... crack/cocaine IS natural, it comes from the coca plant.
As was pointed out, marijuana is a plant not a chemical. This is a rather poorly worded article for sciam.
Apparently they've discovered chemicals that are like plants. Maybe it enjoys light, grows, photosynthesizes, and reproduces.
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SheerTerror
Registered: 11/28/03
Posts: 1,692
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: fastfred]
#6976506 - 05/28/07 05:53 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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you can do a extraction and smoke THC, the thc is the only thing that gets you high
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SheerTerror
Registered: 11/28/03
Posts: 1,692
Loc: New England
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: SheerTerror]
#6976510 - 05/28/07 05:55 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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the wording? i wasint taking it into that context i was looking at the evidence
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biggysmall
Registered: 04/27/07
Posts: 1,270
Loc: your moms bedroom
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: SheerTerror]
#6976513 - 05/28/07 05:56 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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thats not entirely true... there are other chemicals that play a smaller role in the "high"
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SheerTerror
Registered: 11/28/03
Posts: 1,692
Loc: New England
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: biggysmall]
#6976520 - 05/28/07 05:58 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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yea well theres variations of THC in there but they can be extracted and smoked, injected, whatev, its all chemical based
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
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Re: Marijuana-Like Chemicals Guide Fetal Brain Cells [Re: Koala Koolio]
#6980902 - 05/29/07 06:12 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
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> marijuana is a chemical now?
Yep, and it is usually grown in a lab, according to popular press.
> The finding may help explain studies showing that the children of mothers who smoked marijuana during pregnancy are slower to process information than their peers
For the record, my mother smoked cannabis when I was in the womb. (She isn't proud of the fact.) I guess that explains why I am so slow at figuring things out compared to my peers. I'm gonna have to start blaming all my problems in life on that... 
Quote:
"I would say yes there is human relevance," says study co-leader and neurobiologist Tibor Harkany of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, "but I cannot prove this, and these findings will not prove this."
Sheesh... granted, I may be a bit slow... my Mother smoked after all, thus I am a bit of a subhuman, I suppose... but, generally I try to keep an open mind and let science prove or disprove something rather than taking a position and admitting that my position is not based upon anything more than a gut feeling. Do they not teach ethics anymore?
Quote:
THC would likely affect very similar brain systems in human fetuses, says neuroscientist Yasmin Hurd
Rather than spitting out hypothesis as fact, why not test the hypothesis?
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Just another spore in the wind.
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