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Immunocytochemical localization of melatonin in the harderian gland of Syrian hamster

✍ Scribed by Coto-Montes, Ana M. ;Rodríguez-Colunga, María J. ;Tolivia, Delio ;Menéndez-Peláez, Armando

Publisher
John Wiley and Sons
Year
1996
Tongue
English
Weight
522 KB
Volume
245
Category
Article
ISSN
0003-276X

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✦ Synopsis

Background:

The Harderian gland (HG) is a tubulo-alveolar gland found within the ocular orbit of animals which present a nictitating membrane. The Harderian gland is regarded as an extrapineal melatonin producing organ and both, photoperiod and melatonin have been shown to exert an important role in the metabolism and morphological features of such a gland.

Our results seem to support the presence of melatonin in the nuclei of the HG cells, although our studies have not definitively proved such presence.

Methods: An Immunocytochemical anti-melatonin technique was done over free sections of Bouin fixed material obtained from Syrian hamsters. Some of the sections were embedded in an epoxy resin and studied under electron microscope.

Results: The presence of positive immunoreaction was observed at the level of the nuclear membranes and in close relation to chromatin. No differences were observed between males and females nor between pinealectomized animals and control ones.

Conclusions: Our results suggest the binding of melatonin to the cell nucleus in all cell types of the gland. These observations are in accord with the binding studies performed by Acuna-Castroviejo in purified cell nuclei of rat liver (Acuna-Castroviejo et al.,

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