I. Introduction UNTIL 35 yr ago, most scientists did not take research on the pineal gland seriously. The decade beginning in 1956, however, provided several discoveries that laid the foundation for what has become a very active area of investigation. These important early observations included the findings that, 1), the physiological activity of the pineal is influenced by the photoperiodic en...

There are several common features between the pineal organ and the lateral eye in their developmental and evolutionary aspects. The avian pineal is a photoendocrine organ that originates from the diencephalon roof and represents a transitional type between the photosensory organ of lower vertebrates and the endocrine gland of mammals. Previous cell culture studies have shown that embryonic avia...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the effects of the beta-adrenergic agonist, isoproterenol, on induced increase in melatonin production in the pineal gland of young and old rats, at different circadian stages. MATERIALS AND METHODS We report here the effects of 10(-6) M isoproterenol-stimulated melatonin production by perifused pineal glands obtained from yo...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Although the prevalence of pineal cysts in autopsy series has been reported as being between 25% and 40%, MR studies have documented their frequency to range between 1.5% and 10.8%. The purpose of this high-resolution brain MR imaging study at 1.9T was to determine the prevalence of pineal cysts in healthy adults. MATERIALS AND METHODS Brain MR images of 100 healthy you...

PURPOSE To describe the spectrum of MR and CT findings in clinically symptomatic pineal cysts and to determine whether there are certain diagnostic imaging features that allow one to distinguish a benign pineal cyst from other neoplasms of the pineal region. METHODS MR and CT scans of 19 patients with clinically symptomatic pineal cysts were retrospectively reviewed. Age range was 15 to 46 ye...

N-3 essential fatty acid deficiency affects a number of biological and physiological processes. In this study, we investigated the effect of n-3 essential fatty acid status on two key pineal biochemical functions, melatonin production and lipoxygenation, using pineal glands from rats given an n-3-adequate or n-3-deficient diet. The pineal total lipid profile and phospholipid molecular species d...

Pineoblastomas are rare, malignant pineal parenchymal tumors encountered predominantly in pediatric patients. They distinct from primitive neuroectodermal (PNET) at other sites that they exhibit photosensory differentiation including Flexner–Wintersteiner rosettes and fleu-rettes. Diagnosis can be challenging since share morphologic immunohistochemical fea-tures with embryonal the developing gl...