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Coincident with the easing of marijuana laws in the U.S., researchers are uncovering deleterious effects. The current investigators previously studied rat offspring that never used tetrahydrocannabinol (THC); self-administration of heroin was greater among offspring of THC-using parents than among those with unexposed parents (Neuropsychopharmacology 2014; 39:1315). Now, seeking an epigenetic basis for this cross-generational phenomenon, the investigators compared 16 offspring of rat pairs exposed to THC during adolescence, but not during mating, with 16 offspring of unexposed rat pairs. Unrelated THC-naive mothers reared all offspring.
In an examination of CpG methylation, the maternally exposed offspring group had 1027 differentially methy…