Ultrastructure, ZIO-staining and chromaffinity of gerbil pinealocytes

The ultrastructure and cytochemistry of the gerbil pineal gland were studied by the conventional electron microscopy, zinc iodide-osmium tetroxide (ZIO) staining and chromaffin reaction. Conventional electron microscopy revealed that the ultrastructure of gerbil pinealocytes are similar to other rodents, i.e., irregular cell contour with numerous cytoplasmic processes, round or oval nucleus and prominent nucleoli, elongated mitochondria with flattened and tubular cristae and dense matrix, well-developed Golgi apparatus and its associated structures, abundant elements of endoplasmic reticulum--both smooth and rough varieties, and bundles of microfilament and microtubule in the cytoplasm. Some pinealocyte processes contain numerous small clear and "slightly coated" vesicles. Numerous profiles of varicosities containing small dense-cored and clear vesicles were frequently encountered. After ZIO treatment, ZIO staining was preferentially localized in the cytoplasm of some, but not all, of the gerbil pinealocytes. Numerous small clear vesicles (30-50 nm in diameter) in the process of the pinealocytes or in the varicosities of the nerve fibers showed strong ZIO-philia. After chromaffin reaction treatment, the number and electron density of small clear and dense-cored vesicles in the profiles of nerve varicosities increased and this indicates that some of the small clear and dense-cored vesicles in the varicosities are reactive. It is thus concluded that (1) the vesicles in the pinealocytes may be rich in cystine and/or cysteine and possibly the organelle is involved in the sequestering calcium ion during the calcification of the pineal concretions, and (2) the small dense-cored and clear vesicles in the nerve fibers in the gerbil pineal parenchyma may contain both serotonin and primary biogenic amines.