The Obesity Prevention Effect of Oily Extracts from Different Cannabis Strains

Obesity characterized by hyperplasia and hypertrophy of the adipose tissue. Mammals have two main types of adipose tissue: white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT). WAT is the main type and is distributed throughout the body. BAT is the main tissue regulating thermogenesis. Obese adipose tissue is infiltrated by macrophages, which participate in inflammatory pathways. Two different macrophages exist: M1 typical to obese produce proinflammatory cytokines, and M2 in lean adipose tissue and produce anti-inflammatory cytokines.

We tested the effects of different oily cannabis extracts and pure cannabinoids on gene expression during differentiation process of WAT and BAT. We demonstrated that in WAT pure and certain oily cannabinoid preparations significantly inhibit important genes controlling fat storage. In the context of the differentiation processes of brown preadipocytes, we prove that the cannabinoid preparations affect the differentiation process and mitochondrial activation of brown adipose cells. We conclude that there are direct interactions between cannabinoids and adipocytes. Preliminary in vivo data indicate that cannabinoids affect the fat mass and weight of mice fed a high-fat diet.

Additionally, we tested the effects of certain oily cannabis extracts and pure cannabinoids on inflammation of M1 phenotype macrophages. We demonstrate that pure and oily cannabinoid preparations caused a significant reduction in the expression of genes associated with inflammation. These findings clearly demonstrate that cannabinoids have an effect on the systemic inflammatory processes associated with immune cells present in the adipose tissue.