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Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of endogenous cannabinoids in healthy and tumoral human brain and human cells in culture
Author(s) -
Maccarrone Mauro,
Attinà Marina,
Cartoni Antonella,
Bari Monica,
FinazziAgrò Alessandro
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of neurochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.75
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1471-4159
pISSN - 0022-3042
DOI - 10.1046/j.1471-4159.2001.00092.x
Subject(s) - endogeny , human brain , mass spectrometry , chemistry , chromatography , synthetic cannabinoids , gas chromatography–mass spectrometry , neuroscience , biology , biochemistry , cannabinoid , receptor
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.