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Cannabinoid Receptors in Sperm

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Book cover Marihuana and Medicine

Abstract

Mammalian and invertebrate sperm contain receptors for a wide variety of neurotransmitters that regulate sperm functions required for fertilization such as motility and the initiation of the acrosome reaction. The acrosome reaction is a ligand-stimulated secretory event in sperm that enables the sperm to penetrate the egg’s investments and to fuse with the egg’s plasma membrane. Previous studies in our laboratory using [3H]CP-55,940 showed that sea urchin sperm contain cannabinoid receptors that are remarkably similar to cannabinoid receptors found in mammalian brain and peripheral organs. Cannabinoid agonists and anandamide (an endogenous ligand for cannabinoid receptors in mammalian tissues) inhibit fertilization in sea urchins by blocking the acrosome reaction. These findings, taken together with other studies showing that the gene for the human brain cannabinoid receptor also is expressed in the human testis and that anandamide is synthesized in the female reproductive tract in mammals, suggested to us that human sperm may contain cannabinoid receptors. We have obtained preliminary evidence that [3H]CP-55,940 binds to putative cannabinoid receptors in live human sperm in a saturable manner, and that cannabinoid ligands affect in vitro capacitation of human sperm. These findings show that functional cannabinoid receptors are present in sperm, suggest that sperm cannabinoid receptors and their endogenous ligands may regulate normal sperm functions required for fertilization within the female reproductive tract in humans, and also imply that smoking marijuana may affect these processes in vivo.

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Authors
  1. Herbert Schuel
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  2. Michael C. Chang
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  3. Lani J. Burkman
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  4. Robert P. Picone
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  5. Alexandros Makriyannis
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  6. Arthur M. Zimmerman
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  7. Selma Zimmerman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, New York University School of Medicine, USA

    Gabriel G. Nahas MD, PhD, DSc  & Kenneth M. Sutin MD, MS  & 

  2. Department of Biochemistry, Oxford University, USA

    David Harvey PhD

  3. Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Uppsala, Sweden

    Stig Agurell PhD, PharmD, DSc

  4. NYU School of Medicine, USA

    Nicholas Pace MD  & Robert Cancro MD  & 

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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Schuel, H. et al. (1999). Cannabinoid Receptors in Sperm. In: Nahas, G.G., Sutin, K.M., Harvey, D., Agurell, S., Pace, N., Cancro, R. (eds) Marihuana and Medicine. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-710-9_34

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-710-9_34

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-5717-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-710-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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