Longatti Pierluigi, Perin Alessandro, Rizzo Vittoria, Comai Stefano, Giusti Pietro, Costa Carlo Virgilio Luigi
Neurosurgical Unit - Ca'Foncello Hospital, University of Padova, Treviso, Italy.
J Pineal Res. 2007 Mar;42(2):113-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-079X.2006.00391.x.
The role of melatonin in humans still remains unclear. Uncertainties persist about its effects on neurophysiology regarding its levels in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), as the bulk of knowledge on this subject mainly derives from studies conducted on animals. In this study, CSF was micro-sampled with a simple, new method from each cerebral ventricle of patients undergoing neuroendoscopy for hydrocephalus. Our purpose was to measure CSF melatonin levels and determine possible differences in its concentration among various significant areas in the cerebral ventricles (e.g. pineal recess, pituitary recess, lateral ventricle, fourth ventricle) and lumbar cistern. From 2002 to 2004, 10 hydrocephalic patients were operated on using a neuroendoscopic technique. The CSF specimens were investigated for melatonin concentrations (free plus protein-bound) after deproteinization; the measurement technique was high-performance liquid chromatography. The preliminary data obtained with this endoscopic micro-sampling technique (applied to humans for the first time) suggest that melatonin is more concentrated within the ventricles and its highest concentration is found in the third ventricle (IIIv), although the difference detected between the CSF of the IIIv and that of the pineal recess was not significant.
褪黑素在人类中的作用仍不明确。由于关于该主题的大部分知识主要来自对动物的研究，因此其在人类脑脊液（CSF）中的水平对神经生理学的影响仍存在不确定性。在本研究中，采用一种简单的新方法，对因脑积水接受神经内镜检查的患者的每个脑室进行脑脊液微量采样。我们的目的是测量脑脊液褪黑素水平，并确定脑室中各个重要区域（如松果体隐窝、垂体隐窝、侧脑室、第四脑室）和腰池之间其浓度的可能差异。2002年至2004年，10例脑积水患者接受了神经内镜手术。对脑脊液标本进行脱蛋白处理后，检测褪黑素浓度（游离加蛋白结合）；测量技术为高效液相色谱法。首次应用于人类的这种内镜微量采样技术获得的初步数据表明，褪黑素在脑室内的浓度更高，其最高浓度出现在第三脑室（IIIv），尽管IIIv脑脊液与松果体隐窝脑脊液之间检测到的差异不显著。
