Kurumado K, Mori W
Acta Pathol Jpn. 1976 May;26(3):381-4. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1827.1976.tb00887.x.
An electron microscopic study of a pineal gland which had been obtained from a 3-year-old girl at autopsy revealed the presence of synaptic ribbon in it. Namely, in some parenchymal cells observed, synaptic ribbons, each of which was ca. 700 nm in length and with synaptic vesicles of up to 60 nm in diameter gathering on the surface, were found in the cytoplasmic area adjacent to the cell membrane. The substructure of the synaptic ribbon, i.e., parallel striae running inside along the longitudinal direction, was definitely observed. There is a hypothesis which has been almost accepted that the mammalian pinealocyte is homologous to the photoreceptor cell of the pineal organ in lower animals, and one of the morphological evidences which supports this speculation is the presence of sensory cell elements in both. Since, this kind of work has been hardly done with human materials, the above finding may offer a meaningful information which discloses a part of the real function of the pineal gland in man.
对一名3岁女童尸检时获取的松果体进行的电子显微镜研究显示其中存在突触带。也就是说，在观察到的一些实质细胞中，在靠近细胞膜的细胞质区域发现了突触带，每条突触带长度约为700纳米，表面聚集着直径达60纳米的突触小泡。沿纵向在内部延伸的平行条纹这种突触带的亚结构被明确观察到。有一种假说几乎已被接受，即哺乳动物的松果体细胞与低等动物松果体器官的光感受器细胞同源，支持这一推测的形态学证据之一是两者都存在感觉细胞成分。由于几乎没有用人体材料进行过这类研究，上述发现可能提供了有意义的信息，揭示了人类松果体实际功能的一部分。
