Morphology and quantification of sheep pineal glands at pre-pubertal, pubertal and post-pubertal periods

The pineal gland is a neuroendocrine organ associated with photoperiodic regulation in mammals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pineal gland at the pre-pubertal, pubertal and post-pubertal periods by means of morphology and stereology. The study examined at total of 24 ovine pineal glands collected from healthy female Akkaraman breed. Thick sections (40m) were cut and treated with synaptophysin. Following each thick section, six consecutive sections at a thickness of 5m were cut. Each thin section was stained with one of the following dyes: Crossman's modified triple dye, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), melatonin marker, periodic acid-Schiff, Von Kossa and AgNOR. The pineal gland volume was measured using Cavalieri's method. The optical fractionator was used to estimate the total number of pinealocytes. The percentage of parenchyma and connective tissue and degree of vascularization were estimated by the area fraction fractionator method. The pineal gland volumes in the pre-pubertal, pubertal and post-pubertal groups were 7.53 +/- 1.715mm(3), 11.20 +/- 1.336mm(3) and 17.75 +/- 1.188mm(3), respectively (p<.5). The number of pinealocytes in the pre-pubertal, pubertal and post-pubertal groups was 3,244,000 +/- 228,076, 4,438,000 +/- 243,610, 7,381,766 +/- 406,223, respectively (p<.05). The glands of the post-pubertal group contained the highest amount of connective tissue (11.49 +/- 2.103%; p<.5) and the largest GFAP staining area (p<.05). The melatonin staining density was the highest in the pubertal group. The density of lipofuscin staining was higher in the pubertal and post-pubertal groups.