The ultrastructure of neuronal-pinealocytic interconnections in the monkey pineal

Recent ultrastructural studies of neuronal-pinealocytic interconnections in the monkey pineal are reviewed. The pinealocytes in the adult monkey show almost all of the cytological specializations known in subprimate mammals. Adjacent pinealocytes are functionally coupled through ribbon synapses on cell bodies and gap junctions on cell bodies and cell processes. The pinealocytes receive direct synpatic contacts of nerve fibers with cholinergic terminal morphology. Nerve cells restricted to the central portion of the pineal receive synaptic contacts with more than three different morphologically defined types of nerve terminals. In addition to nerve terminals containing small clear vesicles or vesicles of pleomorphic morphology, a pinealocyte's terminal process containing the synaptic ribbon forms a true synaptic contact on the nerve cell body. The diversity of synapses on these nerve cells strongly suggests multiple origins of these neurons rather than a single peripheral parasympathetic origin. The possible involvement of pineal neurons in an intrinsic circuit that regulates the function of pinealocytes and integrates the neural input from the central as well as the peripheral nervous systems is discussed.