On the presence of different populations of pinealocytes in the mammalian pineal gland.

The different categories of cells described by many authors in the pineal gland of mammals have been critically considered. In some mammalian species, two different populations of pinealocytes have been observed. To each of these populations a specific secretory process can be attributed. One is characterized by the formation of granular vesicles originating from the Golgi apparatus, the other by the formation of material directly from the cisterns of the granular endoplasmic reticulum. Both of these secretory processes appear to be also present in the pineal of the mole, the hedgehog, and the rat, mammals in which generally only one population of pinealocytes has been described. The physiological consequences of these findings have been discussed.