Journal ArticleDOI
The Pharmacology of the Pineal Gland
TLDR
This review subdivides present knowledge into two areas: the effects on mammals of administering pineal extracts or pure synthetic or natural pineal constituents and (b) the effects of drugs and hormones on the pineal itself.Abstract:
Only recently have a sufficient number of publications been available to legitimize a review of the pharmacology of the mammalian pineal organ. Two decades ago Kitay & Altschule reviewed the world literature on pineal physiology, which comprises several thousand papers, and concluded only that removal of the pineal, or administration of pineal extracts, somehow affected pigmentation in lower vertebrates and gonadal function in mammals (1). As the studies described below demonstrate, much more information is now available concerning the pharmacology of the pineal. This review subdivides present knowledge into two areas: (a) the effects on mammals of administering pineal extracts or pure synthetic or natural pineal constituents and (b) the effects of drugs and hormones on the pineal itself. As might be anticipated, the bulk of studies cited in both categories deals with the pineal hormone, melatonin. Melatonin was first isolated from bovine pineal extracts in 1958 by Lerner and his colleagues (2), who used as a marker the capacity of the hormone to aggregate the pigment granules in amphibian melanophores around the cell nucleus. Five years later, Wurtman et al (3) showed that melatonin affected a physiological function in mammals, that is, the size and secretion of the ovary, and subsequent studies have demonstrated that melatonin administration also modifies the growth, composition, and functional activities of numerous other organs. Only recently an assay was developed that allows quantification of the melatonin in human urine (4). The concentrations of the compound vary with a characteristic daily rhythm, peaking at night. The pineal's apparent role as the sole or major source of melatonin, the presence of melatonin in urine, and the demonstration that physiologic effects follow a pinealectomy or the administration of melatomin seem to justify labeling it a pineal hormone. Melatonin synthesis and pineal biosynthetic activity are generally controlled by the sympathetic nerves of this organ (5,6). Therefore, it should not be surprising that drugs known to modify the synthesis, release, or metabolism of norepinephrine in peripheral organs also affect pineal function. Melatonin is itself a derivative of another biogenic amine, serotonin, whose metabolism and actions are also affected by numerous drugs. Indeed, the pineal has often provided an apt tool for examining monoaminergic mechanisms for pharmacologists not specifically concerned with its particular functional properties.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Melatonin. A Mammalian Pineal Hormone
TL;DR: Today the pineal gland is recognized as an active functioning neuroendocrine organ that responds primarily to photic stimuli, exhibits circadian rhythms, and influences the metabolic activity of a host of endocrine glands.
Journal ArticleDOI
Clinical chemistry of serotonin and metabolites
TL;DR: This review aims to place the analysis of indoles in biological matrices in a biochemical, physiological and clinical perspective and highlights several important steps in their chromatographic analysis and quantification.
Journal Article
Clinical chemistry of serotonin and metabolites
TL;DR: In this article, the authors place the analysis of indoles in biological matrices in a biochemical, physiological and clinical perspective and highlight several important steps in their chromatographic analysis and quantification.
Journal ArticleDOI
Association between adolescent idiopathic scoliosis prevalence and age at menarche in different geographic latitudes
Theodoros B Grivas,Elias Vasiliadis,Vasilios Mouzakis,Constantinos Mihas,Georgios Koufopoulos +4 more
TL;DR: It appears that latitude which differentiates the sunlight influences melatonin secretion and modifies age at menarche, which is associated to the prevalence of idiopathic scoliosis.
Book ChapterDOI
The Pineal Organ
TL;DR: After decades of contradictory results, experimental paradigms have finally been developed which provide compelling evidence that secretions of the mammalian pineal organ physiologically control several neuroendocrine functions, principally involving the anterior pituitary gland and its peripheral “target organs.”