Background: Marijuana has numerous roles as an agonist in the endocannabinoid signaling system (ESS). This study evaluated monoclonal antibodies across experimental techniques to establish a framework for studying ESS receptors, CB1 and CB2.
Methods: Tissue from five patients with head and neck cancer were used to generate cell lines and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) sections, which were analyzed by western blot (WB), immunohistochemistry (IHC), and immunofluorescence (IF). Subgroup analysis was performed on FFPE sections from 8 marijuana users and 10 controls by IHC. Results were compared across methods for consistency.
Results: In all patients, WB and IF were CB1 positive, whereas IHC was negative. Select samples were CB2 positive by WB, but failed IF and IHC applications. In subgroup analysis, 1 of 8 users and 3 of 10 nonusers were CB1 positive.
Conclusions: Interpretation of CB1/CB2 antibody data should be performed cautiously and confirmation of findings across multiple experimental methods is recommended.
Keywords: CB1 receptor; CB2 receptor; endocannabinoid; head and neck; squamous cell carcinoma.
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.