# Impact on adult mouse brain of oral THC and CBD consumption during adolescence

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2020 · $194,375

## Abstract

Summary
Edibles that contain Δ9-tetrahyrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient produced by the
cannabis plant, are becoming increasingly popular among adolescents, making examination of this method of
use on the adolescent developing brain urgently needed. An exciting collaboration between the Stella and
Land laboratories led to developing and validating a new model to study how oral self-administration of THC
impacts adolescent rodent brain and ensuing behavioral impairment in adulthood. Thus, this model of voluntary
oral consumption of THC-gelatin edibles achieves relevant blood THC levels, produces acute cannabimimetic
effects and can easily be combined with other drugs, here cannabidiol (CBD).
 Adolescence is a critical period where maturation of neural systems is still occurring, particularly in the
limbic system, and disruption of this maturation by drug use may lead to severe behavioral impairments in
adulthood. Our preliminary results highlight one of the first successful self-administration models of THC in
rodents, thereby enabling comparisons of the long-term consequences of voluntary THC on brain development
and behavioral outcomes.
 Our new questions are to determine how long-term adolescent use of THC alone or in combination with
CBD impacts 1) cannabimimetic response, which may provide insight as to the mechanism of 2) altered
signaling within the mesocorticolimbic system, which may determine deficits in 3) adult motivated behavior and
pain responses to opioids. Our aims are to determine:
Aim 1: Establish optimal THC-THC/CBD consumption regimen by adolescent mice.
Aim 2: Impact of THC and THC/CBD consumption during adolescence on adult mice behavioral
responses to morphine.
The completion of these studies, which utilize an innovative mouse model of voluntary oral consumption, will
increase our mechanistic understanding of the impact of THC and THC/CBD use on adolescent brain
development, and further determine how such perturbations influence motivated behavior and pain response to
opioids.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10039866
- **Project number:** 1R21DA051558-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Nephi Stella
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $194,375
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-07-15 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10039866

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10039866, Impact on adult mouse brain of oral THC and CBD consumption during adolescence (1R21DA051558-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10039866. Licensed CC0.

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