Motion Sickness, Stress and the Endocannabinoid System
Figure 2
Comparison of leukocyte cannabinoid receptor mRNA between volunteers with and without motion sickness during the parabolic flight experiment.
RNA was prepared from whole blood and subjected to quantitative RT-PCR (triplicate determinations). Data were calculated relative to GAPDH and RPL13A-mRNA using an efficiency-corrected algorithm. *indicates a significant decline in CB1-receptor mRNA (W = −26.0, T+ = 1.0, T- = −27.0, p = 0.03, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test) in volunteers with motion sickness when compared to 24 h pre-flight values. CB1-receptor mRNA in individuals without motion sickness remained unchanged over time (W = −8.0, T+ = 10.0, T- = −18.0, p = 0.58) as was CB2-receptor expression before and after the experiment. Horizontal black bars in the boxplots indicate median values; upper and lower lines of the boxes show the 5th and 95th percentile.