Autonomic nerves terminating on smooth muscle cells of vessels in the pineal organ of various mammals

Abstract

The significance of autonomic nerves reaching the pincal organ was already investigated in connection to the innervation of pinealocytes and mediating light information from the retina for periodic melatonin secretion. In earlier works we found that some autonomic nerve fibers are not secretomotor but terminate on arteriolar smooth muscle cells in the pineal organ of the mink (Mustela vison). Studying in serial sections the pineal organ of the mink and 15 other mammalian species in the present work, we investigated whether similar axons of vasomotor-type are generally present in the wall of pineal vessels, further, whether they reach the organ via the conarian nerves or via periarterial plexuses. In all species investigated, axons of perivasal nerve bundles were found to form terminal enlargements on the smooth muscle layer of pineal arterioles. The neuromuscular endings contain several synaptic and some granular vesicles. Axon terminals are also present around pineal veins. In serial sections, we found that the so-called conarian autonomic nerves reach the pineal organ alongside pineal veins draining into the great internal cerebral vein. Similar nerves present near arteries of the arachnoid enter the pineal meningeal capsule and septa by arterioles, both perivenous and periarterial nerves form terminals of vasomotor-type. The arteriomotor and venomotor regulation of the tone of the vessels of the pineal organ may serve the vascular support for circadian and circannual periodic changes in metabolic activity of the pineal tissue.

Toward a Unified Field of Study: Longevity, Regeneration, and Protection of Health through Meditation and Related Practices

“…Moreover, recent studies of a similar form of meditation, published in Human Brain Mapping and the Proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, demonstrate that visualization meditation of activating energy directed to the pineal gland location specifically did in fact result in measurable increases in metabolic activity in the pineal gland as assessed by functional magnetic resonance imagery 34,35 . Such increases in pineal metabolic activity are likely to represent increased melatonin synthesis and/or secretion 36 …”

<b>Estudo morfológico da glândula pineal de Procyon cancrivorus (Cuvier, 1798) (mão-pelada)</b><br>doi: 10.5007/2175-7925.2010v23n2p163

“…Segundo Frank et al (2003), a glândula pineal dos mamíferos possui regulação arteriomotora e venomotora do tônus dos vasos da glândula pineal podendo servir de suporte vascular para as mudanças periódicas circadianas e circanuais na atividade metabólica do tecido pineal. Para Voisin et al (1994), a enzima hidroxiindol-Ometiltransferase (HIOMT) é catalisada no passo final da biossíntese da melatonina e parece ser especificamente expressada na glândula pineal e na retina.…”

Peripheral autonomic nerves of human pineal organ terminate on vessels, their supposed role in the periodic secretion of pineal melatonin

“…Peripheral nerves reach the pineal by conarian nerves alongside the great cerebral vein and by periarterial nerves. They run in the pineal meningeal tissue separating the lobular evaginations of the organ and terminate on vessels by vasomotor endings .…”