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Input and output signals in a model neural system: The regulation of melatonin production in the pineal gland

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Summary

The production of melatonin has been studied using organ cultures of pineal glands incubated with methionine-methyl-3H. Melatonin-O-methyl-3H was extracted from cultured pineal glands and incubation media, and the activity of N-acetyltransferase was measured. This is the first of two enzymes necessary for the conversion of serotonin to melatonin in the pineal. The treatment of pineal glands with norepinephrine or dibutyryl cyclic AMP increased the release of melatonin-O-methyl-3H into the incubation media and the concentration of melatonin-O-methyl-3H in the glands. These treatments also resulted in the stimulation of N-acetyltransferase, as compared to untreated glands. The transduction of neural information to biochemical, signals which regulate the melatonin pathway appears to involve the release of norepinephrine, which stimulates N-acetyltransferase activity through an adenyl cyclase-cyclic AMP mechanism, as evidenced by these and other studies discussed.

In the present study the effects of harmine were studied. This hallucinogen is known to inhibit monoamine oxidase and stimulate melatonin production. Harmine was observed to stimulate N-acetyltransferase. This observation raises the possibility that an important action of this psychotropic drug may be on mechanisms which convert neural activity into biochemical events.

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  1. Section on Physiological Controls, Laboratory of Biomedical Sciences, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 20014, Bethesda, Maryland

    David C. Klein & Joan Weller

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  1. David C. Klein
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  2. Joan Weller
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Klein, D.C., Weller, J. Input and output signals in a model neural system: The regulation of melatonin production in the pineal gland. In Vitro 6, 197–204 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02617764

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