Young Age and Concomitant Cannabis (THC) and Ethanol (EtOH) Exposure Enhances Rat Brain Damage Through Decreased Cerebral Mitochondrial Respiration
Véronique Quenardelle,
Anne-Laure Charles,
Anne Charloux,
Jean-Sébastien Raul,
Valérie Wolff,
Bernard Geny
Affiliations
Véronique Quenardelle
Biomedicine Research Center of Strasbourg (CRBS), UR 3072, “Mitochondria, Oxidative Stress and Muscle Plasticity”, Faculty of Medicine, University of Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France
Anne-Laure Charles
Biomedicine Research Center of Strasbourg (CRBS), UR 3072, “Mitochondria, Oxidative Stress and Muscle Plasticity”, Faculty of Medicine, University of Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France
Anne Charloux
Biomedicine Research Center of Strasbourg (CRBS), UR 3072, “Mitochondria, Oxidative Stress and Muscle Plasticity”, Faculty of Medicine, University of Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France
Jean-Sébastien Raul
Toxicology Laboratory, Institute of Legal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France
Valérie Wolff
Biomedicine Research Center of Strasbourg (CRBS), UR 3072, “Mitochondria, Oxidative Stress and Muscle Plasticity”, Faculty of Medicine, University of Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France
Bernard Geny
Biomedicine Research Center of Strasbourg (CRBS), UR 3072, “Mitochondria, Oxidative Stress and Muscle Plasticity”, Faculty of Medicine, University of Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France
The reason why young people taking concomitantly cannabis (THC) and ethanol (EtOH) are more prone to stroke is underresearched. To investigate whether an underlying mechanism of increased brain damage could be an impaired mitochondrial function, this experiment determined the acute effects of EtOH, both alone and associated with THC, on mitochondrial respiration and oxidative stress (hydrogen peroxide H2O2) on young (11 weeks) and middle-aged (45 weeks) brain in rats, using a high-resolution oxygraph (Oxygraph-2K, Oroboros instruments). In young brains, EtOH decreased mitochondrial respiration by −51.76 ± 2.60% (from 32.76 ± 3.82 to 17.41 ± 1.42 pmol/s/mL, p p p p p 2O2 production was similar in both age groups (1.0 ± 0.2 versus 1.1 ± 0.08 pmol O2/s/mL) and was not modified by THC addition. In conclusion, EtOH alone significantly impairs brain mitochondrial respiration and concomitant THC further aggravates such damage, particularly in young brains. These data support the hypothesis that enhanced mitochondrial dysfunction might participate in the increased occurrence of stroke in the young and urge for better prevention against EtOH and THC addictions in adolescents.
