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a C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth & Development, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan 48201-1415
b Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology, Ralph L. Smith Research Center, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas 66160-7336
Anandamide (N-arachidonoylethanolamine), an arachidonic acid derivative, is an endogenous ligand for both the brain-type (CB1-R) and spleen-type (CB2-R) cannabinoid receptors. We have previously demonstrated that preimplantation mouse embryos express mRNA for these receptors and that the periimplantation uterus contains the highest level of anandamide yet discovered in a mammalian tissue. We further demonstrated that 2-cell mouse embryos exposed to low levels of anandamide (7 nM) or other known cannabinoid agonists in culture exhibit markedly compromised embryonic development to blastocysts and that this effect is mediated by CB1-R. In contrast, the present study demonstrates that blastocysts exposed in culture to the same low levels of cannabinoid agonists exhibited accelerated trophoblast differentiation with respect to fibronectin-binding activity and trophoblast outgrowth. Again, these effects resulted from activation of embryonic CB1-R. There was a differential concentration-dependent effect of cannabinoids on the trophoblast, with an observed inhibition of differentiation at higher doses. These results provide evidence for the first time that cannabinoid effects are differentially executed depending on the embryonic stage and cannabinoid levels in the environment. Since uterine anandamide levels are lowest at the sites of implantation and highest at the interimplantation sites, the new findings imply that site-specific levels of anandamide and/or other endogenous ligands in the uterus may regulate implantation spatially by promoting trophoblast differentiation at the sites of blastocyst implantation.
2 Correspondence: D. Randall Armant, C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth & Development, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 275 East Hancock, Detroit, MI 48201. FAX: 313 577 8554; d.armant{at}wayne.edu
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