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Light and Electron Microscopic Studies

Ryoichi Satodate, MD; Kineo Sasaki, MD; Minoru Ota, PhD

Arch Neurol. 1970;23(3):278-286.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THE PINEAL gland has been considered an organ which relates to sexual maturity since Gutzeit¹ had detected a pineal tumor in a case of precocious puberty. Attention has been paid recently to the pineal gland as a receptor of light.² Research has been provoked by the success of isolation of melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) from the pineal gland.^3,4

Wurtman et al^5,6 showed that administration of melatonin in rats decreases the incidence of estrus and reduces ovarian weight, and exposure to light reduces the activity of the pineal gland to synthesize melatonin, so that the ovarian weight increases. Contrarily, the ovarian weight is decreased by housing the animals in darkness,² which increases melatonin formation.⁷ Roth et al⁸ have observed that the parenchymal cells of the pineal gland were more atrophic and hypofunctional in the rats kept in continuous light than in those kept in darkness. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Morioka, Japan

From the departments of pathology (Drs. Satodate and Sasaki) and biochemistry (Dr. Ota), Iwate Medical University School of Medicine, Morioka, Japan.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication April 17, 1970.

Reprint requests to Department of Pathology, Iwate Medical University School of Medicine, 19-1 Uchimaru, Morioka, Japan (Dr. Satodate).

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