| Abstrakt: |
The pineal gland plays a key role in coordinating various bodily functions. The majority of pineal cells are pinealocytes, and the second largest group are glial cells, the data on which are contradictory. The present work is undertaken to study astroglial cells of the human pineal gland using an immunohistochemical method with transmitted light microscopy and, for the first time, confocal laser microscopy. Astrocytes were labeled with antibodies to glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and vimentin. A large number of GFAP- and vimentin-immunopositive structures have been found in the human pineal gland. GFAP was localized in polygonal cells located in lobules among pinealocytes, while vimentin was localized in blood vessels and rounded cells localized mainly in trabeculae and partially in pineal lobules. Both GFAP- and vimentin-immunoreactive cells had several long branching processes that penetrated the entire pineal parenchyma, forming a dense network, and ended on the surface of the pineal gland, blood vessels, and around calcifications. GFAP-immunoreactive fibers tightly entwined all calcifications (singly and in groups), while vimentin-immunopositive processes surrounded only a part of them. The study of consecutive sections of the pineal gland showed that the coincidence of the localization of GFAP and vimentin for pineal cells is not typical. It can be supposed that, in the human pineal gland, there are two separate populations of astrocyte-like cells, GFAP- or vimentin-containing, which differ not only cytochemically, but also in morphological features and localization of cell bodies, as well as in the location of processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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