Document Type : Original Article
Authors
Department of Human Physiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria
Abstract
Background: Consumption of Cannabis sativa (CS) (Marijuana), a well-known psychoactive substance may impose serious side effects on the body cells. This study aims to investigate the effects of CS on both male and female Wistar rats to identify the potential sex differences and examine specific blood parameters to understand cannabis’s impact (taking into consideration, dose-dependent) on blood health.
Method: Administration of CS was done by oral cannula daily for 21 days. All the groups have free access to food and water. At the end of 21 days, all the animals were sacrificed and haematological parameters were measured using microplateimmunoenzymometric (EMA/ELISA) assays.
Results: We observed that pack cell volume (PCV), Red blood cell (RBC), haemoglobin, basophil, eosinophil and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) of the groups treated with high doses ( 4 and 6mg/kgbw) of CS were each significantly (p<0.05) decrease in both male and female groups than the control and low dose (2mg/kgbw) respectively. However, platelet, white blood cell (WBC), neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were each increased significantly (p<0.05) in both male and female groups treated with high doses of CS than the control and low dose respectively. There was no significant difference in mean corpuscular haemoglobin among the groups in both males and females. Additionally, there was no significant difference in all the haematological parameters between the control and 2mg/kg bw for both male and female groups.
Conclusion: This study showed that CS seriously affected dose-dependent haematological parameters. However, these effects were more pronounced in males than in female rats.
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