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A pharmacological and autoradiographic study on the ultrastructural localization of indoleamine synthesis in the rabbit pineal gland

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Summary

In order to localize pineal indoleamine synthesis at the ultrastructural level, an electron microscopic analysis was carried out on rabbit pineal tissue, cultured for several days in a medium containing the inhibitor p-chlorophenylalanine. Furthermore, electron microscopic autoradiography was applied to rabbit pineal tissue cultured in a medium containing the tritium labeled precursor 5-hydroxytryptophan. p-Chlorophenylalanine altered the ultrastructure of the mitochondria in the light pinealocytes only. Incubation with 3H-5-hydroxytryptophan caused a moderate and uniform labeling of the pinealocytes. These data suggest that the synthesis and storage of indoleamines in the rabbit pineal gland do not take place within the conventional membrane-limited cell organelles but more diffusely in the cytosol of the light pinealocytes.

The spherical enlargement of the mitochondria in the light pinealocytes after culturing with p-chlorophenylalanine supports the biochemical findings of Hori et al. (1976) that the mitochondria are the carriers of the enzyme tryptophan 5-hydroxylase. The subsequent decarboxylation of 5-hydroxytryptophan to serotonin probably occurs free in the cytosol.

The strong labeling of the noradrenergic nerve endings (in contrast to the cholinergic ones) after incubation with 3H-5-hydroxytryptophan demonstrates that the noradrenergic nerve endings in the rabbit pineal gland can, at least in vitro, selectively take up 5-hydroxytryptophan.

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  1. Department of Electron Microscopy, Netherlands Institute for Brain Research, IJdijk 28, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    H. J. Romijn, Minke T. Mud & P. S. Wolters

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  1. H. J. Romijn
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  2. Minke T. Mud
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Acknowledgements. The authors are grateful to Prof. Dr. J. Ariëns Kappers and Dr. M.A. Corner for critically reading the manuscript, to Dr. W.F.G. Flight for his advice with regard to the autoradiographic techniques, and to Miss J. Sels and Miss M.M. Smidt for typing the manuscript

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Romijn, H.J., Mud, M.T. & Wolters, P.S. A pharmacological and autoradiographic study on the ultrastructural localization of indoleamine synthesis in the rabbit pineal gland. Cell Tissue Res. 185, 199–214 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00220665

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