Endocannabinoid System Contributes to Liver Injury and Inflammation by Activation of Bone Marrow-Derived Monocytes/Macrophages in a CB1-Dependent Manner.

Hepatic injury undergoes significant increases in endocannabinoidsand infiltrations of macrophages, yet the concrete mechanisms of changes in endocannabinoids and the functions of macrophage-expressed cannabinoid receptors (CBs) are unclear. Biosynthetic and degradative enzymes of endocannabinoids revealed a significant change in human fibrotic liver. Meanwhile, we showed dynamic changes of these enzymes and CBs (CB1 and CB2) from 1 to 56 d in carbon tetrachloride-induced murine liver injury. Biosynthetic enzymes (N-acylphosphatidyl-ethanolamine selective phospholipase D and diacylglycerol lipase-α) and CBs were markedly increased, whereas degradative enzymes (fatty acid amidohydrolase and monoacylglycerol lipase) were downregulated. Moreover, these enzymes intimately correlated with the fibrosis parameter [procollagen α1(III)]. Bone marrow-derived monocytes/macrophages (BMM) expressed CBs. Interestingly, CB1 but not CB2 mediated BMM migration through a Boyden chambers assay, and the effect depended on the G(α)i/o/RhoA/ROCK signaling pathway. ICR mice were lethally irradiated and received BM transplants from enhanced GFP transgenic mice. Four weeks later, mice of BM reconstruction were subjected to carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury. In the chimeric murine model, we found that blockade of CB1 by administration of a CB1 antagonist inhibited the recruitment of BMM into injured liver using immunofluorescence staining and FACS, but it did not have effects on migration of T cells and dendritic cells without CB1 expression. Furthermore, activation of CB1 enhanced cytokine expression of BMM. In vivo, inhibition of CB1 attenuated the inflammatory cytokine level through real-time RT-PCR and cytometric bead array, ameliorating hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. In this study, we identify inactivation of BMM-expressed CB1 as a therapeutic strategy for reducing hepatic inflammation and fibrosis.