No correlation of pineal "synaptic" ribbon numbers and melatonin formation in individual rat pineal glands

As previous circadian studies of pineal "synaptic" ribbon numbers and melatonin formation suggested that a positive correlation of the two variables exists, in the present investigation this problem was examined in individual pineal glands of rats killed at 1200 h and 2400 h, respectively. For this purpose, one half of the gland was processed for electron microscopy and the ribbons were counted in an area of 20,000 micron2 tissue; in the other half serotonin N-acetyltransferase (NAT) activity and melatonin content were determined. No correlation was found to exist between ribbon numbers and pineal NAT activity, pineal melatonin levels and serum melatonin levels, either at day- or at nighttime. It is concluded that the ribbons may perhaps be more closely related to the innervation of the pineal gland than to melatonin formation.