The relationship between the pineal gland and aging has been assumed already nearly a century ago. Recently, melatonin was considered by some authors as a "wonder drug." The present paper tries to summarize the relationship between melatonin and aging in three points. 1. Decline of melatonin production during aging. 2. The role of the pineal gland in the regulation of the ovarian cycle in aged ...

H UMAN pineal gland calcification, which was reported in autopsy specimens about 300 years ago, was first described in the plain skull roentgenogram in 1918 by Sch#{252}ller,’6 who remarked that the gland “very often shows a calcium deposit from the third decade and occasionally even in children.” Subsequent workers confirmed Sch#{252}ller’s observation and established the influence of age on t...

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...

The pineal gland, a circumventricular organ, plays an integrative role in defense responses. The injury-induced suppression of the pineal gland hormone, melatonin, which is triggered by darkness, allows the mounting of innate immune responses. We have previously shown that cultured pineal glands, which express toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1), produce TNF...

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT), a precursor for melatonin production, is produced abundantly in the pineal gland of all vertebrate animals. The synthesis of 5-HT in the pineal gland is rate limited by tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (TPH1) whose activity displays a twofold increase at night. Earlier studies from our laboratory demonstrate that pineal 5-HT secretion exhibits dynamic circadian rh...

The ultrastructure of the dog pineal gland from the first postnatal day to the seventh month is described. In the first postnatal stages, pineal parenchyma only shows immature proliferative cells with abundant cytoplasmic glycogen. Nerve fibers are seen in the pineal connective tissue spaces. The differentiation of the dog pineal cell types begins in the first postnatal week. Both pinealocytes ...

There is evidence that the trigeminal (Gasserian) ganglia innervate the mammalian pineal gland and serve in its regulation in addition to the sympathetic and cholinergic as well as further influences. By means of immunohistochemical methods, previous studies demonstrated fibers containing calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP-LI) or substance P (SP) in the superficial pineal of various mammalia...

1. The action of N-2'-chloroethyl-N-ethyl-2-methyl benzylamine (xylamine) on rat pineal gland sympathetic innervation was examined. 2. This alkylating agent caused a concentration-dependent increase in pineal gland N-acetyltransferase (NAT) activity in neurologically intact pineal glands that was suppressed in glands previously subjected to bilateral superior cervical ganglionectomy. 3. Xylamin...

There is no direct verification of pineal gland involvement in human uveitis. Specimens of pineal tissue are not available during active uveitis in human patients. Naturally occurring uveitis in horses gives us an opportunity to examine tissues during active ocular inflammation. We examined the pineal gland of a horse that was killed because it had become blind during an episode of uveitis. The...

The demonstration of the hormone mclatonin (N-acetyl-Bmethoxytryptamine) in bovine pineal gland (1) prompted a study of the enzymes involved in its formation and metabolism. In preliminary studies (2, 3) we described an enzyme, hydroxyindole-O-methyl transferase, in the pineal gland of cows, that catalyzes the 0-methylation of N-acetyl-serotonin to melatonin. This paper describes the purificati...