Cutaneous Microvascular Responses To Post Occlusive Reactive Hyperemia With Habitual Cannabis Use.

PURPOSE: Since cannabis has been legalized in many states, its usage for recreational purpose has become more prevalent, particularly among young populations. Recent studies have shown negative effects of habitual cannabis use (HCU) on vascular health, but there is limited research tested skin microvascular function of healthy young HCU populations. Skin microvascular dysfunction is a good early indicator of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) progression. Therefore, investigating the impact of HCU on skin microvascular dysfunction could provide insight into how HCU negatively affects CVDs profession. The purpose of this study is to investigate to extent to which HCU impairs skin microvascular reactivity by Post Occlusive Reactive Hyperemia (PORH). METHODS: The study recruited a total of 15 healthy young participants (Age: 21 ± 2 yr old, 1 M/6F, n = 7 vs. 26 ± 4 yr old, 6 M/2F, n = 8, CON vs HCU; MAP: 78.1 ± 8 vs 84.6 ± 8 mmHg, CON vs HCU; BMI: 22.1 ± 2.1 vs. 24.3 ± 2.7 kg/m2, CON vs HCU). PORH was elicited by restricting the blood flow in the non-dominant arm with a cuff inflated at 200 mmHg for 5 minutes followed by cuff deflation. The Laser Doppler Flowmetry (LDF) was used to measure the skin blood flow throughout the PORH protocol (baseline, 5 minutes of occlusion, and 5 minutes after deflation). Blood flow changes throughout the PORH was presented by Cutaneous Vascular Conductance (CVC, flux/mmHg). RESULTS: Currently our preliminary data has shown no statistical significance on Time to Peak (Tp) (CON vs. HCU: 24 ± 9 vs 30 ± 26 s, p = 0.71), Peak-Biological Zero (BZ) (CON vs. HCU: 1.0 ± 0.3 vs 1.1 ± 0.4 CVC flux/mmHg, p = 0.49), and Max/Time (CON vs. HCU: 0.04 ± 0.06 vs 0.07 ± 0.06 CVC/s, p = 0.2). Furthermore, AUC-BZ (CON vs. HCU: 135.47 ± 66.6 vs 151.75 ± 48.85 CVC flux/mmHg, p = 0.59), Total Reactive Hyperemia (CON vs HCU: 2853.81 ± 1201.22 vs 3808.304 ± 1155.346 %CVCmax * sec, p = 0.14), and Peak %CVCmax (CON vs HCU: 31.67 ± 6.77 vs 38.27 ± 8.00 %CVCmax, p = 0.11) aldo did not different between two groups. CONCLUSION: Although we did not find statistical significance in variables from PORH due to the limited sample size and imbalance in sex distribution within the groups. it is premature to draw a conclusion with our current dataset. In fact, most variables showed better cutaneous microvascular responses from PORH in the HCU group. Given the small and imbalanced sample, increasing the number of participants and balancing the sex ratio may yield different outcomes. Thus, more participants are needed to appropriately test our hypothesis. Supported by: This research was supported by the Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Support Grant (RSCA), California State University Bakersfield