Synopsis
Newborn albino rats were injected daily for 8 days with 50 μg/g of 6-hydroxydopamine. They were killed 3 weeks after the last injection together with untreated litter mate controls. Monoamines were demonstrated histochemically in the pineal body, in the iris and in the superior cervical ganglion with the formaldehyde-induced fluorescence method. Acetylcholinesterase was demonstrated in the pineal using acetylcholine as substrate and tetraisopropy-pyrophosphoramide (iso-OMPA) to inhibit non-specific cholinesterases.
Treatment with 6-hydroxydopamine caused a complete disappearance of amine-containing fibres from the pineal, whereas some fluorescent ganglion cells remained in the superior cervical ganglion and in some rats a few amine-containing fibres in the iris. Acetylcholinesterase activity, located in fine nerve fibres of the pineal body, disappeared completely after treatment with 6-hydroxydopamine.
Since 6-hydroxydopamine causes a selective destruction of the aminergic sympathetic fibres, it is concluded that the disappearance of the acetylcholinesterase activity indicates that in the pineal body this enzyme activity is located exclusively in truly aminergic nerve fibres.
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Eränkö, O., Eränkö, L. Loss of histochemically demonstrable catecholamines and acetylcholinesterase from sympathetic nerve fibres of the pineal body of the rat after chemical sympathectomy with 6-hydroxydopamine. Histochem J 3, 357–363 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01005017
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01005017