“Marijuana and many of its constituent cannabinoids influence the central nervous system (CNS), probably through the cannabinoid receptor, which has recently been cloned in rat and human. While numerous reports have also described effects of cannabinoids on the immune system, the observation of both mRNA and cannabinoid receptor has hitherto been exclusively confined to the brain, a reported detection in the testis being the sole example of its presence at the periphery.
Here we report the expression of the cannabinoid receptor on human immune tissues using a highly sensitive polymerase-chain-reaction-based method for mRNA quantification. We show that, although present in a much lower abundance than in brain, cannabinoid receptor transcripts are found in human spleen, tonsils and peripheral blood leukocytes…
The demonstration of cannabinoid-receptor expression at both mRNA and protein levels on human leukocytes provides a molecular basis for cannabinoid action on these cells.”