ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
Maternal cannabis use is associated with suppression of immune gene networks in placenta and increased anxiety phenotypes in offspring.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- Birth, cognitive and behavioral effects of intrauterine cannabis exposure in infants and children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2024Pooled it
- Characterizing Online Questions and Answers About Cannabis Use and Pregnancy on the Social Media Platform Quora: Data Mining and Qualitative Content Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Review
- A single-nucleus multiome analysis of transcriptome and chromatin accessibility reveals cell-type-specific immune modulation for chronic cannabis use among people with HIV infection.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cannabis Use During Pregnancy Is Associated with the Suppression of Circulating Maternal Cytokines.Cannabis and cannabinoid research · 2026Article
- Impact of prenatal delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol exposure on mouse brain development: a fetal-to-adulthood magnetic resonance imaging study.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Cannabis Use During Early Pregnancy and Child Diagnoses of Depressive and Anxiety Disorders.Cannabis (Albuquerque, N.M.) · 2026Article
- The placenta as a window into neonatal brain injury.Seminars in perinatology · 2025Review
- Sex-specific disruptions in the developmental trajectory of anxiety-like behaviors due to prenatal cannabidiol exposure.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Cannabis impacts female fertility as evidenced by an in vitro investigation and a case-control study.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Substance use and use disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period.American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2025Review
- The impact of oral cannabis consumption during pregnancy on maternal spiral artery remodelling, fetal growth and offspring behaviour in mice.EBioMedicine · 2025Article
- Examining the association between maternal prenatal psychiatric disorders and behavioural problems among offspring in early childhood: population-based study.BJPsych open · 2025Article
- Beyond Infections: Exploring Immune-Mediated Pathways Linking Cannabis and Emerging Environmental Contaminants to Neurodevelopmental Outcomes.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- Prenatal cannabis exposure in the clinic and laboratory: What do we know and where do we need to go?Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2024Review
- Sex-specific maladaptive responses to acute stress upon in utero THC exposure are mediated by dopamine.Pharmacological research · 2024Article
- Biospecimens in the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study: Rationale and protocol.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2024Article
- Brain age prediction and deviations from normative trajectories in the neonatal connectome.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Prenatal cannabis exposure, the brain, and psychopathology during early adolescence.Nature. Mental health · 2024Article
- Evaluating Evidence Supporting an Effect of Prenatal Cannabis Exposure on White Matter Integrity.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2024Article
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3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
While cannabis is among the most used recreational drugs during pregnancy, the impact of maternal cannabis use (mCB) on fetal and child development remains unclear. Here, we assessed the effects of mCB on psychosocial and physiological measures in young children along with the potential relevance of the in utero environment reflected in the placental transcriptome. Children (∼3 to 6 y) were assessed for hair hormone levels, neurobehavioral traits on the Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC-2) survey, and heart rate variability (HRV) at rest and during auditory startle. For a subset of children with behavioral assessments, placental specimens collected at birth were processed for RNA sequencing. Hair hormone analysis revealed increased cortisol levels in mCB children. In addition, mCB was associated with greater anxiety, aggression, and hyperactivity. Children with mCB also showed a reduction in the high-frequency component of HRV at baseline, reflecting reduced vagal tone. In the placenta, there was reduced expression of many genes involved in immune system function including type I interferon, neutrophil, and cytokine-signaling pathways. Finally, several of these mCB-linked immune genes organized into coexpression networks that correlated with child anxiety and hyperactivity. Overall, our findings reveal a relationship between mCB and immune response gene networks in the placenta as a potential mediator of risk for anxiety-related problems in early childhood.
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