Acute cerebral hemorrhage changes the nocturnal surge of plasma melatonin in humans

The diurnal rhythm of plasma melatonin was studied in 46 Chinese patients with acute cerebral hemorrhage. The state of consciousness of each patient was assessed clinically. The individual sites of lesion were determined by computerized tomography scanning. One to five days after stroke, blood samples were collected by venipuncture at 1000 and 1400 h in the daytime and 0200 and 0400 h at night. Plasma melatonin was extracted by dichloromethane and determined by radioimmunoassay. It was found that patients with lesions in the brain stem or in the third and lateral ventricles had melatonin levels significantly different from the other subjects in that these values were lower and lacking a nocturnal rise. These results are consistent with the presumptive retina-pineal pathway proposed in humans. Dramatic blunting or obliteration of the nocturnal melatonin surge in the blood was also observed in some patients with lesions in the frontal lobe, fronto-parietal lobe, parieto-temporal lobe, and basal ganglia. These brain regions are not involved in the retina-pineal pathway described in rodents or humans. Thus, our results suggest that brain regions other than the presumptive retina-pineal neural pathway may play an important role in the generation and/or regulation of the diurnal production and/or secretion of pineal melatonin in humans. However, a global functional disturbance caused by cerebral hemorrhage cannot be ruled out in some cases. It should be noted that many of the lesions leading to a change in the nocturnal rise of plasma melatonin were unilateral lesions. The significance of this finding is presently unknown. In addition, patients without a nocturnal rise of plasma melatonin were mostly comatose. They had lesions in the basal ganglion, fronto-parietal lobe, brain stem, and lateral and third ventricles. The latter findings suggest that in the brain, certain regions responsible for the state of consciousness of the individual may also be important to the dirunal rhythm of pineal melatonin secretion.