Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of endogenous cannabinoids in healthy and tumoral human brain and human cells in culture

2001; Wiley; Volume: 76; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1046/j.1471-4159.2001.00092.x

ISSN

1471-4159

Autores

Mauro Maccarrone, Marina Attinà, Antonella Cartoni, Monica Bari, Alessandro Finazzi‐Agrò,

Tópico(s)

Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

Resumo

Endocannabinoids are lipid mediators thought to modulate central and peripheral neural functions. We report here gas chromatography–electron impact mass spectrometry analysis of human brain, showing that lipid extracts contain anandamide and 2‐arachidonoylglycerol (2‐AG), the most active endocannabinoids known to date. Human brain also contained the endocannabinoid‐like compounds N ‐oleoylethanolamine, N ‐palmitoylethanolamine and N ‐stearoylethanolamine. Anandamide and 2‐AG (0.16 ± 0.05 and 0.10 ± 0.05 nmol/mg protein, respectively) represented 7.7% and 4.8% of total endocannabinoid‐like compounds, respectively. N ‐Palmitoyethanolamine was the most abundant (50%), followed by N ‐oleoyl (23.6%) and N ‐stearoyl (13.9%) ethanolamines. A similar composition in endocannabinoid‐like compounds was found in human neuroblastoma CHP100 and lymphoma U937 cells, and also in rat brain. Remarkably, human meningioma specimens showed an approximately six‐fold smaller content of all N ‐acylethanolamines, but not of 2‐AG, and a similar decrease was observed in a human glioblastoma. These ex vivo results fully support the purported roles of endocannabinoids in the nervous system.

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