{"doi":"10.1089/can.2023.0150","title":"A Sexually Dimorphic Role for Intestinal Cannabinoid Receptor Subtype-1 in the Behavioral Expression of Anxiety","abstract":"Background: Increasing evidence suggests that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in the brain controls anxiety and may be a therapeutic target for the treatment of anxiety disorders. For example, both pharmacological and genetic disruption of cannabinoid receptor subtype-1 (CB 1 R) signaling in the central nervous system is associated with increased anxiety-like behaviors in rodents, while activating the system is anxiolytic. Sex is also a critical factor that controls the behavioral expression of anxiety; however, roles for the ECS in the gut in these processes and possible differences between sexes are largely unknown. Objective: In this study, we aimed to determine if CB 1 Rs in the intestinal epithelium exert control over anxiety-like behaviors in a sex-dependent manner. Methods: We subjected male and female mice with conditional deletion of CB 1 Rs in the intestinal epithelium (intCB 1 −/− ) and controls (intCB 1 +/+ ) to the elevated plus maze (EPM), light/dark box, and open field test. Corticosterone (CORT) levels in plasma were measured at baseline and immediately after EPM exposure. Results: When compared with intCB 1 +/+ male mice, intCB 1 −/− male mice exhibited reduced levels of anxiety-like behaviors in the EPM and light/dark box. In contrast to male mice, no differences were found between female intCB 1 +/+ and intCB 1 −/− mice. Circulating CORT was higher in female versus male mice for both genotype groups at baseline and after EPM exposure; however, there was no effect of genotype on CORT levels. Conclusions: Collectively, these results indicate that genetic deletion of CB 1 Rs in the intestinal epithelium is associated with an anxiolytic phenotype in a sex-dependent manner.","journal":"Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research","year":2023,"id":385504,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9565,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":773689,"name":"Bryant Avalos","orcid":"0000-0002-1863-2060","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1153952,"name":"Camila Alvarez","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":492409,"name":"Nicholas V. DiPatrizio","orcid":"0000-0001-8423-0695","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":773690,"name":"Courtney Wood","orcid":"0000-0003-2263-1818","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":80,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:17:52.636565Z","pmid":"37862126","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}