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GFAP- and Vimentin-Immunopositive Structures in Human Pineal Gland

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Abstract

The pineal gland plays a key role in coordinating various bodily functions. The majority of pineal cells are pinealocytes, and the second largest group are glial cells, the data on which are contradictory. The present work is undertaken to study astroglial cells of the human pineal gland using an immunohistochemical method with transmitted light microscopy and, for the first time, confocal laser microscopy. Astrocytes were labeled with antibodies to glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and vimentin. A large number of GFAP- and vimentin-immunopositive structures have been found in the human pineal gland. GFAP was localized in polygonal cells located in lobules among pinealocytes, while vimentin was localized in blood vessels and rounded cells localized mainly in trabeculae and partially in pineal lobules. Both GFAP- and vimentin-immunoreactive cells had several long branching processes that penetrated the entire pineal parenchyma, forming a dense network, and ended on the surface of the pineal gland, blood vessels, and around calcifications. GFAP-immunoreactive fibers tightly entwined all calcifications (singly and in groups), while vimentin-immunopositive processes surrounded only a part of them. The study of consecutive sections of the pineal gland showed that the coincidence of the localization of GFAP and vimentin for pineal cells is not typical. It can be supposed that, in the human pineal gland, there are two separate populations of astrocyte-like cells, GFAP- or vimentin-containing, which differ not only cytochemically, but also in morphological features and localization of cell bodies, as well as in the location of processes.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The presented images were obtained using the equipment of the “Human Microbiome” Center for the Collective Use at the Institute of Experimental Medicine.

Funding

The work was supported by funding from the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 22-25-20051, https://rscf.ru/project/22-25-20051/) and the St. Petersburg Science Foundation in accordance with an agreement dated April 14, 2022, no. 47/2022.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Experimental Medicine, 197022, St. Petersburg, Russia

    D. A. Sufieva, E. A. Fedorova, V. S. Yakovlev, D. E. Korzhevskii & I. P. Grigorev

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  1. D. A. Sufieva
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  2. E. A. Fedorova
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  3. V. S. Yakovlev
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  4. D. E. Korzhevskii
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  5. I. P. Grigorev
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Contributions

D.A. Sufieva: writing the text of the article, photographing and analyzing preparations, preparing illustrations; E.A. Fedorova: performing immunohistochemical reactions, photographing preparations; V.S. Yakovlev: making sections, performing immunohistochemical reactions; D.E. Korzhevskii: editing the manuscript of the article; I.P. Grigorev: design of the experiment, analysis of preparations, writing the text of the article.

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Correspondence to I. P. Grigorev.

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Conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Statement on the welfare of animals. The work was performed in compliance with ethical standards, which has been confirmed by the positive conclusions of the local ethics committee of the Institute of Experimental Medicine no. 58-9/1-684 of December 11, 2009, and no. 2/22 of April 6, 2022.

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Sufieva, D.A., Fedorova, E.A., Yakovlev, V.S. et al. GFAP- and Vimentin-Immunopositive Structures in Human Pineal Gland. Cell Tiss. Biol. 17, 406–413 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1990519X23040120

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