The influence of the frequency and pattern of sympathetic nerve activity on serotonin N-acetyltransferase in the rat pineal gland.

The activity of the pineal enzyme arylamine: N-acetyltransferase (NAT) was determined following direct stimulation of the preganglionic or post-ganglionic nerves of the superior cervical ganglia. 1. Stimulation of the preganglionic trunks at 10 c/sec during the day or night was sufficient to increase NAT activity approximately 50-fold, to levels comparable to those observed at night in the intact animal. The time course of this effect of nerve stimulation differed between day and night. 2. The responses of pineal NAT to certain frequencies of stimulation were similar for preganglionic and post-ganglionic stimulation. In both cases the responses to stimulation at 5 c/sec appeared to be maximal, 10 c/sec causing no further increase. However, at 10 c/sec, stimulation was more effective post-ganglionically than preganglionically. 3. Various patterns of preganglionic stimulation, having the same average frequency, differed in their ability to increase the activity of NAT. Some, though not all, of these differences between patterns were observed during post-ganglionic stimulation. 4. Unilateral stimulation of the preganglionic nerves produced an increase in NAT activity that was less than half the increase produced by bilateral stimulation, suggesting that the innervation from the two ganglia interact within the pineal gland. 5. These data indicate that changes in the firing rates of sympathetic nerves innervating the pineal gland, within the range of frequencies typically observed for sympathetic neurones, would be sufficient to account for the circadian rhythm in NAT activity observed in the intact rat. Changes in the over-all pattern of sympathetic activity, in addition to changes in the total number of stimuli, could play a significant role in the pineal response.