Summary
An electron microscopical investigation of the pineal gland of the adult noctule bat revealed the presence of some peculiar ciliary derivatives, similar to the club-shaped outer segment of rudimentary photoreceptor cells in the pineal organ of nonmammalian vertebrates. The pinealocytes of population I can be classified in several morphological types, one of them displaying morphological features resembling those of rudimentary photoreceptor cells. These results reconfirm the concept of the sensory cell line in the vertebrate pineal organ. The question whether the pinealocytes of population II belong to the same sensory cell line is discussed.
Résumé
Des dèrivès ciliaires identiques aux segments externes des photorècepteurs rudimentaires prèsents dans l'èpiphyse des vertèbrès infèrieurs ont ètè observès dans quelques pinealocytes de la Noctule (chauve-souris) adulte. Quelques autres observations ont, de plus, permis de classer les pinéalocytes de la population I en plusieurs types, l'un d'entre eux prèsentant de nombreuses ressemblances morphologiques avec les photorècepteurs rudimentaires. Ces diffèrentes observations confirment une nouvelle fois le concept de la lignèe de cellules sensorielles dans l'organe pinèal des vertèbrès. L'appartenance de la deuxième population de pinealocytes à la lignèe des cellules sensorielles est discutèe.
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Pevet, P., Kappers, J.A. & Voûte, A.M. Morphologic evidence for differentiation of pinealocytes from photoreceptor cells in the adult noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula, Schreber). Cell Tissue Res. 182, 99–109 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00222058
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00222058