Cannabinoid receptor CB2 is expressed on vascular cells, but not astroglial cells in the post-mortem human Huntington's disease brain

Publication date: September 2014 Source:Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy, Volumes 59–60 Author(s): Megan J. Dowie , Natasha L. Grimsey , Therri Hoffman , Richard L.M. Faull , Michelle Glass Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurological disease with motor, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. Characterised by neuronal degeneration, HD pathology is initially apparent in the striatum and cortex. Considerable research has recently suggested that the neurological immune response apparent in brain injury and disease may provide a valuable therapeutic target. Cannabinoid CB2 receptors are localised and up-regulated on a number of peripheral immune cell types following inflammation and injury. However, their cellular location within the human brain during inflammation has not been well characterised. The present study shows CB2 is expressed in human post-mortem striatum in HD. Quantification revealed a trend towards an increase in CB2 staining with disease, but no significant difference was measured compared to neurologically normal controls. In HD striatal tissue, there is an up-regulation of the brains' resident immune cells, with a significant increase in GFAP-positive astrocyte staining at both grade 1 (685±118%) and grade 3 (1145±163%) and Iba1-positive microglia at grade 1 (299±27%) but not grade 3 (119±48%), compared to neurologically normal controls. Both cell types exhibit irregular cell morphology, particularly at higher grades. Using double-labelled ...
Source: Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research