Letter: The pineal gland: Another perspective.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G M Vaughan.
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Light deprivation by blinding in female hamsters was followed by a regression of the reproductive organs, an elevation of pituitary LH concentration and a depression of pituitary prolactin levels. Pinealectomy negated almost completely the effects of light deprivation on the neuroendocrine-reproductive axis. Weekly subcutaneous implants of a melatonin:beeswax pellet completely prevented the pineal gland from inhibiting reproductive physiology in blinded hamsters. The findings suggest that melatonin is not pineal antigonadotrophic factor in female golden hamsters. Melatonin implanted hamsters also had higher than normal levels of plasma prolactin.
Immature 25-day-old mice were injected daily with 1 microgram of arginine vasotocin for 3 or 4 days and killed 24 hours after the last injection. The ovaries were 30 percent smaller in treated females than in controls. The ventral prostates and accessory organs (seminal vesicles and coagulating glands) were less than half the size of these structures in control males. Similar results were observed when 15-day-old mice were given similar injections and killed 2 weeks after the last injection; furthermore, testis weights were 28 percent smaller than those of controls. It is speculated that arginine vasotocin, which has been found in mammalian pineal glands, might mediate effects of the pineal gland on normal sexual development.
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