Evidence for the presence of CB2-like cannabinoid receptors on peripheral nerve terminals

We have investigated whether there are cannabinoid CB2 receptors that can mediate cannabinoid-induced inhibition of electrically evoked contractions in the mouse vas deferens or guinea-pig myenteric plexus-longitudinal muscle preparation. Our results showed that mouse vas deferens and guinea-pig whole gut contain cannabinoid CB1 and CB2-like mRNA whereas the myenteric plexus preparation seemed to contain only cannabinoid CB1 mRNA. JWH-015 (1-propyl-2-methyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)indole and JWH-051 (1-deoxy-11-hydroxy-Delta(8)-tetrahydrocannabinol-dimethylheptyl), which have higher affinities for CB2 than CB1 cannabinoid binding sites, inhibited electrically evoked contractions of both tissues in a concentration related manner. This inhibition was attenuated by 31.62 nM of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor selective antagonist SR141716A [N-(piperidin-1-yl)-5-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-4-methyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxamide hydrochloride] only in the myenteric plexus preparation. Vasa deferentia from Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol-pretreated mice (20 mg/kg i.p. once daily for two days) showed reduced sensitivity to JWH-015 and JWH-051. The results suggest that these compounds exert their inhibitory effects through cannabinoid CB1 receptors in the myenteric plexus preparation, but mainly through CB2-like cannabinoid receptors in the vas deferens. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.