Reduced uterine perfusion increases hippocampal cannabinoid receptor 1 expression and reduces pentylenetetrazol-induced seizures after rimonabant pre-treatment
Authors: Jones-Muhammad Maria , Pryor Tyranny , Shao Qingmei , Freeman Kevin , Warrington Junie P. 
Published: May 2023

Eclampsia, new-onset seizures in pregnant women, can affect women with preeclampsia, a hypertensive pregnancy disorder. Eclampsia is associated with high maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. The mechanisms contributing to increased risk of seizures in preeclampsia patients are not fully known. One potential mechanism could be abnormal endocannabinoid system activity, and abnormal neuro-modulation. Indeed, increased placental cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1R) expression and reduced serum concentration of anandamide, a ligand that activates the CB1R, have been reported in preeclampsia patients. We hypothesized that reduced uterine perfusion pressure (RUPP) in mice leads to differences in hippocampal CB1R expression and that inhibiting CB1R activity will increase seizure sensitivity in RUPP mice. Pregnant mice underwent sham (n=5) or RUPP (n=5) surgery on gestational day (GD) 13.5. On GD 18.5, the hippocampus was harvested and processed for Western blot to analyze the expression of CB1R in homogenates, synaptosomal fraction, and cytosolic fraction of the hippocampus. To determine if blocking CB1R increases sensitivity to pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced seizures, additional sham (n=7) and RUPP (n=7) mice were pretreated with 10 mg/kg of rimonabant, video monitored for 15 minutes, injected with 40 mg/kg of PTZ and video monitored for an additional 30 minutes before being sacrificed. Seizures were scored using a modified 7-point Racine scale. In hippocampal homogenates, CB1R expression increased in RUPP mice (p=0.056). There was no difference in CB1R expression in the synaptosomal fraction (p=0.095); however, there was an increase in CB1R expression in the cytosolic fraction of RUPP mice (p=0.016). Immunofluorescence analysis showed increased CB1R colocalization on both glutamate- and GABA- releasing neurons within hippocampal CA1 (p=0.029; p=0.057, respectively). CB1R blockade induced a maximum seizure score of 4 in both groups but led to higher seizure scores over time in RUPP mice (p=0.025). PTZ injection after rimonabant pretreatment increased seizure scores in sham (p<0.05), non-significantly increased scores in RUPP (p=0.075), increased duration of seizures in sham but not RUPP mice (p=0.021; p=0.245, respectively), and reduced latency to seizures in sham mice (p=0.019) while there was no further decrease in seizure latency in RUPP (p=0.374) mice. Furthermore, during the first 15 minutes of PTZ exposure, RUPP mice had lower seizure scores over time than sham [p(TimexRUPP)=0.002] following CB1R blockade. These data suggest that RUPP induces abnormal CB1R expression, resulting in increased sensitivity to seizures after CB1R blockade, while protecting against worse seizures when challenged with the pro-convulsant, PTZ. NIH R00HL129192, R00HL129192-S1, COBRE Pilot Grant, T32HL105324, William Townsend Porter Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from the American Physiological Society, 1F99NS129125-01. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.