From: Mark Crosby (crosby_m@rocketmail.com)
Date: Fri Aug 29 1997 - 10:50:33 MDT
"Brain doubles up on marijuanalike agents" by J. Travis in August 23,
1997 Science News online
<http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc97/8_23_97/fob2.htm> summarizes a
970821 Nature report by Piomelli, et.al., on 2-AG: "Investigators now
report that the brain makes a second THC-like compound, called sn-2
arachidonylglycerol, or 2-AG, and it does so in much greater
quantities than anandamide."
2-AG "is made by the hippocampus" and "may play a role in the
deliberate forgetting" associated with the long-term potentiation of
memory.
It sounds like we could figuratively call it the brain’s
‘highlighter’. The compound has also been found in the intestines,
spleen and pancreas, indicating it plays some role in those organs as
well.
>From a consciousness (and perhaps cryonics) perspective, it’s
interesting that they noted that "2-AG can prove difficult to detect
in the brain because the compound degrades rapidly after death.
Piomelli's team avoided that problem by quick-freezing brain tissue
within 10 seconds of a rat's death and then analyzing the tissue."
Mark Crosby
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