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The Pineal Gland
Open accessAbstract
Buried nearly in the center of the brain in any mammal is a small white structure, shaped somewhat like a pinecone, called the pineal body. In man this organ is roughly a quarter of an inch long and weighs about a tenth of a gram. The function of the pineal body has never been clearly understood. Now that the role of the thymus gland in establishing the body's immunological defenses has been demonstrated, the pineal has become perhaps the last great mystery in the physiology of mammalian organs. This mystery may be nearing a solution: studies conducted within the past few years indicate that the pineal is an intricate and sensitive "biological clock," converting cyclic nervous activity generated by light in the environment into endocrine-that is, hormonal-information. It is not yet certain what physiological processes depend on the pineal clock for cues, but the evidence at hand suggests that the pineal participates in some way in the regulation of the gonads, or sex glands.
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Citations
Cited by
Simonneaux, V., & Ribelayga, C. (2003) · Pharmacological Reviews · doi:10.1124/pr.55.2.2 · Cited by 740
Melatonin: The chemical expression of darkness
Reiter, R. J. (1991) · Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology · doi:10.1016/0303-7207(91)90087-9 · Cited by 632
The Endogenous Melatonin Profile as a Marker for Circadian Phase Position
Lewy, A. J., Cutler, N. L., & Sack, R. L. (1999) · Journal of Biological Rhythms · doi:10.1177/074873099129000641 · Cited by 391
Melatonin directly resets the rat suprachiasmatic circadian clock in vitro
McArthur, A. J., Gillette, M. U., & Prosser, R. A. (1991) · Brain Research · doi:10.1016/0006-8993(91)91748-p · Cited by 314
Melatonin as a biomarker of circadian dysregulation
Mirick, D. K., & Davis, S. (2008) · Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention · doi:10.1158/1055-9965.epi-08-0605 · Cited by 176
Metadata
- Authors
- Wurtman, R. J., & Axelrod, J.
- Venue
- Scientific American
- Published
- 1965-07
- Volume
- 213
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 50-60
- ISSN
- 0036-8733 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2983445473
- Cited by
- 773
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 16.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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- Wurtman, R. J., & Axelrod, J. (1965). The Pineal Gland. Scientific American. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0765-50
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
