In male rats pinealectomized at 4–9 weeks of age and decapitated after survival periods of 2–6 weeks, the neurosecretory activity of the hypothalamic magnocellular supraoptic nucleus (SON) was studied as compared with the same activity in the nucleus of sham-operated controls. The distribution of thiamine diphosphate-phosphohydrolase (TPP-ase), an enzyme specific to the Golgi apparatus, was used as the parameter of this activity, employing a Hennig ocular for the purpose. In the SON of the pinealectomized rats, a decrease in neurosecretory activity was observed. The possibility of an influence of the pineal gland on the SON via the gonadal regulatory system is discussed.
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Vries et al. (2008) studied this question.