TY - JOUR
T1 - Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of endogenous cannabinoids in healthy and tumoral human brain and human cells in culture
AU - Maccarrone, Mauro
AU - Attinà, Marina
AU - Cartoni, Antonella
AU - Bari, Monica
AU - Finazzi-Agrò, Alessandro
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - 2-arachidonoylglycerol
KW - Anandamide
KW - Endocannabinoids
KW - Human brain
KW - Neurotoxicity
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U2 - 10.1046/j.1471-4159.2001.00092.x
DO - 10.1046/j.1471-4159.2001.00092.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 11208922
AN - SCOPUS:0035143026
VL - 76
SP - 594
EP - 601
JO - Journal of Neurochemistry
JF - Journal of Neurochemistry
SN - 0022-3042
IS - 2
ER -