Two cannabinoid receptors and the enzymes, involved in the inactivation of endocannabinoids like anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol, fatty acid amide hydrolase and cyclooxygenase-2 constitute the endocannabinoid system. The vanilloid receptor is also involved in endocannabinoid signaling, since it is also activated by endocannabinoids. It has been proposed that the endocannabinoid system plays an immunomodulatory role in gastrointestinal inflammatory disorders. Quantitative measurement of gene expression can be of interest for a better understanding of the role of the endocannabinoid system in inflammatory processes in the human gut. In this thesis several studies were performed where gene expression in human tissues or cell lines was measured. Further studies with human biopsies were performed to determine the gene expression in normal human intestinal tissue. In the last part of this study it was investigated whether IL-1ß has an effect on the mRNA expression of CB1, CB2, FAAH, COX-2 and TRPV1 in HT29 cells.