Summary
To determine whether extra-retinal mechanisms mediate photoperiodic changes in neonatal rat pineal gland N-acetyltransferase activity, 4-day-old intact or bilateral orbital enucleated rats were killed during the dark phase of the lighting cycle, either in darkness or following 4 hr exposure to fluorescent light. Light suppressed the high nighttime N-acetyltransferase activity equally in intact and enucleated pups. Subsequent studies showed that at least 0.5 hr exposure and nocturnal illuminances of 109 ΜW/cm2 or greater were required to cause statistically significant reductions in the activity of the enzyme in 4-day-old rats. Taken together, these data indicate that relatively intense environmental light can affect neonatal rat pineal gland biochemistry via extra-retinal mechanisms.
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Torres, G., Lytle, L.D. Light affects neonatal rat pineal gland N-acetyltransferase activity by an extra-retinal mechanism. J. Neural Transmission 80, 67–77 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01245023
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01245023