Conti A, Maestroni G J
Centre for Experimental Pathology, Istituto Cantonale di Patologia, Locarno, Switzerland.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1998 May 1;840:395-410. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-59512-7_21.
Production of melatonin (MLT) in the pineal gland (PG) of inbred mice such as C57BI/6J, BALB/c, and AKR strains is still a matter of debate. In a recent study we validated the presence of MLT in the PG of these inbred mice. We found a short-term MLT peak in the middle of the dark period with a pattern that mirrors that found previously in the serum. In another study, based on the known immunoregulatory role of MLT, we investigated the role of the PG and MLT in autoimmune diabetes mellitus type I using, as an experimental model, female nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice. Mice were pinealectomized or treated chronically with MLT (injected subcutaneously or administered via drinking water). We found that neonatal pinealectomy accelerates the development of disease in female NOD mice, whereas exogenous MLT protects animals. This is in spite of the fact that MLT increased the production of insulin autoantibodies (IAA). We conclude that PG and MLT influence the development of autoimmune diabetes, although the mechanism of action needs further investigation.
在诸如C57BI/6J、BALB/c和AKR品系的近交系小鼠的松果体（PG）中褪黑素（MLT）的产生仍然存在争议。在最近的一项研究中，我们验证了这些近交系小鼠的松果体中存在MLT。我们在黑暗期中期发现了一个短期的MLT峰值，其模式与之前在血清中发现的模式相似。在另一项研究中，基于MLT已知的免疫调节作用，我们以雌性非肥胖糖尿病（NOD）小鼠作为实验模型，研究了松果体和MLT在I型自身免疫性糖尿病中的作用。对小鼠进行松果体切除或长期用MLT治疗（皮下注射或通过饮用水给药）。我们发现新生小鼠松果体切除会加速雌性NOD小鼠疾病的发展，而外源性MLT可保护动物。尽管MLT增加了胰岛素自身抗体（IAA）的产生。我们得出结论，松果体和MLT会影响自身免疫性糖尿病的发展，尽管其作用机制需要进一步研究。
