Seasonal changes in body weight, pineal hydroxyindole-O-methyltransferase activity (HIOMT) and pineal gland weight were analysed for adult male viscacha (Lagostomus maximus maximus). The viscacha is a nocturnal rodent restricted to the Argentinian pampas which lives in large colonies in extensive burrow systems. Animals were captured monthly, at night, near their burrows, in the vicinity of San...

Dr. Russel J. Reiter was awarded his fifth honorary title by the National University of Cuyo, Argentina, for exemplary contributions towards unraveling mysteries pineal gland and, importantly, its major secretory product, melatonin. This commentary provides a glimpse accomplishments and summary speech during ceremony.

Metastatic Neuroendocrine Tumor (NET) to the pineal gland is a unique manifestation previously unreported in the literature. We describe an unusual case of metastatic bronchial NET to the pineal gland in a 71-year-old male patient. His primary NET had been resected six years previously and there was no indication of the presence of disseminated metastatic disease at that time. Due to increased ...

The pineal gland is innervated by sympathetic neurons whose cell bodies are located in the superior cervical ganglia. This pathway, which carries information concerning environmental lighting to the gland, is important for maintaining a circadian rhythm in the activity of the pineal enzyme serotonin N-acetyltransferase (NAT). Lesioning this pathway blocks the normal nighttime increase in NAT ac...

In this investigation, the presence of NKA-immunoreactive substances was determined in pineal glands from intact, castrated and castrated, testosterone-treated male rats. The effect of environmental light, melatonin treatment and superior cervical ganglionectomy on pineal NKA-immunoreactive substances was also investigated. The results obtained show that NKA is present in measurable amounts in ...

The pineal gland plays an essential role in vertebrate chronobiology by converting time into a hormonal signal, melatonin, which is always elevated at night. Here we have analyzed the rodent pineal transcriptome using Affymetrix GeneChip(R) technology to obtain a more complete description of pineal cell biology. The effort revealed that 604 genes (1,268 probe sets) with Entrez Gene identifiers ...

BACKGROUND The case of a 29-year-old man with histologically proven simultaneous germinoma (seminoma) of the pineal gland and a stage I embryonal carcinoma of the testis is reported. An intradural metastatic lesion from the pineal germinoma was diagnosed at the level of the first thoracic vertebra. Treatment, after inguinal orchiectomy, was chemotherapy only, rather than conventional radiothera...

The innervation of the rat pineal gland from the sphenopalatine, otic, superior cervical and trigeminal ganglia was investigated in animals by use of in vivo retrograde tracings. A solution of 2% Fluorogold was iontophoretically injected into the superficial pineal gland in a series of Wistar rats. After a survival time of 4-10 days, the animals were fixed by perfusion and the brains, sphenopal...

There is a diurnal rhythm in the activity of serotonin N-acetyltransferase in the rat pineal gland. In the normal rat, the nocturnal enzyme activities are 15-to 30-fold greater than are daytime activities. This rhythm is abolished by decentralization or removal of the superior cervical ganglia, procedures that interrupt the only source of central neural input to the pineal gland. This effect of...

The pineal gland has a deep central location, making it a surgeon's no man's land. Surgical pathology within this territory presents a unique challenge and an opportunity for employment of various surgical techniques. In modern times, the microsurgical technique has been competing with the endoscope for achieving superior surgical results. We describe two cases utilizing a purely endoscopic and...