The pineal gland expresses a group of proteins essential for rhythmic melatonin production. This pineal-specific phenotype is the consequence of a temporally and specially controlled program of gene expression. Understanding of pineal circadian biology has been greatly facilitated in recent years by a number of molecular studies, including the cloning of N-acetyltransferase, the determination o...

The pineal gland is a unique organ that synthesizes melatonin as the signaling molecule of natural photoperiodic environment and as a potent neuronal protective antioxidant. An intact and functional pineal gland is necessary for preserving optimal human health. Unfortunately, this gland has the highest calcification rate among all organs and tissues of the human body. Pineal calcification jeopa...

SYNOPSIS. McCord and Allen (1917) found that extracts of mammalian pineal glands contain a potent contracting agent of larval amphibian melanophores. Lerner and his co-workers determined the chemical structure of this principle and named it melatonin. This agent contracts dermal melanophores at a concentration as low as 10" g/ml. Both intact and eyeless larval amphibians blanch when placed in t...

The pineal gland is an organ involved in regulation of homeostasis and body rhythms. It plays an important role in the growth foetuses and adaptation of newborns to new environmental conditions. The requirements of foetuses and newborns progressively change during development. The purpose of the study was to evaluate morphological changes of pineal glands in foetuses and infants with brain lesi...

Cortisol has been suggested to mediate the effect of stress on pineal melatonin synthesis in fish. Therefore, we aimed to determine how pineal melatonin synthesis is affected by exposing rainbow trout to different stressors, such as hypoxia, chasing and high stocking density. In addition, to test the hypothesis that cortisol is a mediator of such stress-induced effects, a set of animals were in...

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is the "master clock" of the mammalian brain. It coordinates the peripheral clocks in the body, including the pineal clock that receives SCN input via a multisynaptic noradrenergic pathway. Rhythmic pineal melatonin production is disrupted in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here we show that the clock genes hBmal1, hCry1, and hPer1 were rhythmically expressed in the ...

We have identified a pineal night-specific ATPase (PINA), a novel splice variant of the ATP7B gene disrupted in Wilson disease (WD). PINA expression exhibits a dramatic diurnal rhythm in both pineal gland and retina with 100-fold greater expression at night than at day. PINA is expressed in pinealocytes and a subset of photoreceptors in adult rats and is transiently expressed in the retinal pig...

The development of human pineal astrocytes was studied in a prospective autopsy series of 115 cases with an age range of 24 weeks of gestation to 91 years. Pineal glands selected from cases with postmortem intervals of one to 24 hours were fixed in Bouin's fluid and immunostained using the peroxidase-antiperoxidase technique and an antiserum against human glial fibrillary acidic (GFA) protein. ...