The Syrian hamster pineal gland responds to isoproterenol in vivo at night.

Failure of isoproterenol (ISO) injections to raise pineal melatonin content has generated doubt about beta-adrenergic control of the melatonin rhythm in Syrian hamsters. However, the effect of ISO injected at night after light-induced reduction of pineal melatonin has not been reported. In this study, light exposure began at 6 1/4 h into one (normally 10-h) dark phase. The hamsters were injected with either ISO (1 mg/kg) or vehicle 15 min later when pineal melatonin content was low. Light exposure continued. Two h after ISO but not vehicle injection, pineal melatonin content rose more than six-fold. In other animals injected at the end of the usual light phase then kept in light for 2 h, pineal melatonin was equally low after ISO or vehicle injection. The Syrian hamster pineal gland can respond in vivo to a beta-adrenergic agonist injected at the physiologically relevant time of the normal nocturnal melatonin surge. This finding, taken together with the previously reported inhibition of the endogenous nocturnal melatonin surge with a beta-blocking drug, suggests that a beta-adrenergic mechanism controls the hamster pineal melatonin rhythm.