Canabidiol (CBD) modulates the effect of ethanol on the fibroblast cells transcriptome in vitro

Considering reports about positive role of Cannabidiol (CBD) in alcohol abuse disorders, in this study we used cellular model of human fibroblasts to analyse the effect of CBD on ethanol-treated cells. We assumed, that CBD will (to some extent), prevent adverse transcriptional changes driven by alcohol administration and this effect will be detectable on the transcriptome level. As a by-product of this analysis, ethanol and CBD alone stimulated transcriptome changes were also described. We moreover considered that CBD effects are dose and time-dependent. As a model for these analyses we selected human fibroblast cell line as a most abundant cell type in human body that express e.g. both cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) and is able to metabolize ethanol trough alcohol dehydrogenase activity. In this study the transcriptome of human fibroblasts was analysed in response to Cannabidiol (CBD), Ethanol (EtOH) and CBD/EtOH mixture treatment. CBD and EtOH were applied in various concentrations (CBD - 0.75 and 3 uM; EtOH - 0.25 and 0.75% in a culture medium). Each treatment was analysed at two tomepoints, namely 6 and 12 hours of incubation. Each treatment was prepared in triplicates, however sequencing results were not obtained for all samples. Control (CTR), untreated cells were also included in the analysis.