Occurrence and regional distribution of striated muscle fibers in the rat pineal gland.

In a total of 96 rat pineals studied 31 were found to contain striated muscle fibers or their precursors. The muscle fibers were most frequently present in the stalk region and more frequently found in the left than in the right hemisphere. Size measurements revealed that the lengths of pineal muscle cell nuclei differ only slightly from those of the sphincter muscle of the iris. However, the yellowish appearance of pineal muscle cell nuclei under darkfield investigation, a phenomenon observed in all muscular tissues of mesenchymal origin and connective tissue cells, may support the hypothesis that pineal musculature is of mesenchymal rather than ectodermal origin.