mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the main causative factors in a wide variety of complications such as neurodegenerative disorders, ischemia/reperfusion, aging process, and septic shock. decrease in respiratory complex activity, increase in free radical production, increase in mitochondrial synthase activity, increase in nitric oxide production, and impair in electron transport system and/or...

Ultrastructural changes in the rat pineal gland were studied quantitatively 7 and 60 days after the sympathetic denervation by bilateral excission or decentralization of superior cervical ganglia. The surface occupied by pineal parenchymal cells decreased in rats of experimental groups with respect to the control group. Furthermore, profile areas of the cytoplasm, nucleus and nucleolus of the p...

The usual nocturnal surge of pineal melatonin content was blocked by bilateral superior cervical ganglionectomy in male Syrian hamsters. Ganglionectomy and pinealectomy each prevented the nocturnal rise of serum melatonin concentration seen in control animals. The normal nocturnal surge of circulating melatonin in this species appears to depend on the pineal gland and its sympathetic innervation.

Our patient was diagnosed with unilateral familial retinoblastoma at the age of thirteen days. Nineteen months later magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain showed a suspicious cystic pineal gland. On a follow-up MR scan after another nine months this lesion was diagnosed as pineoblastoma. The tumor was resected and subsequently highdose chemotherapy was given, concluded with autologous ste...

The pineal body was for a long time looked upon as a functionless remnant and from a phylogenetical point of view was accepted as a rudiment of the third eye, which is, at the present time, only found in hatteria punctata. As far as is known an epiphysis is present in all ver tebrates with the exception of mixinoids and crocodilia. In man the pineal body is pear shaped, lies just beneath the sp...

Chronic stress affects brain areas involved in learning and emotional responses. Although most studies have concentrated on the effect of stress on limbic-related brain structures, in this study we investigated whether chronic stress might induce impairments in diencephalic structures associated with limbic components of the stress response. Specifically, we analyzed the effect of chronic immob...

To assess the role of the pineal gland in the regulation of ovarian activity, female catfish were exposed to various combinations of photoperiods during the postspawning period of the annual reproductive cycle. Ovarian recrudescence and vitellogenin synthesis were accelerated after pinealectomy in catfish maintained under short photoperiod (9L : 15D) at 25 °C. However, at 25 °C, under long (14L...

A 39-year-old man presented with more than 20 years history of episodic headache and one year history of dizziness, impaired vision and memory disorders. Computed tomography and Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a cystic mass involving the pineal gland, tectum and the third ventricle and obstruction of the aqueduct. Interestingly, the fourth ventricle was not involved in this case. The pathol...