Effect of pinealectomy on the circadian rhythms of RNA DNA and protein concentrations in the rat adrenal and testis.
Adrenal and testicular RNA, DNA and protein concentrations were determined in 360 adult male Wistar rats kept under natural lighting conditions with food and water available ad libitum, two and six months after pinealectomy (120 rats) or sham operation (120 rats). A third group of 120 animals was left intact and was studied concomitantly. During each of the two sampling sessions (January and May) subgroups of 5 animals of each of the three groups were sacrificed at 06:00, 12:00, 18:00 and 00:00 over a 72-hour span. The data were analyzed by the single cosinor procedure. The pinealectomized rats showed a desynchronization of their circadian rhythms which 2 months after pinealectomy led to disappearance of detectable rhythms in adrenal RNA and in testicular RNA and DNA concentrations and a marked decrease in the circadian amplitude in adrenal DNA concentration. The adrenal RNA concentration at this time was increased. Six months after surgery circadian rhythms of these functions were again demonstrable as group phenomena but showed in the pinealectomized animals a marked phase difference in relation to the other treatment groups. Both the external and the internal phase relations were still found to be altered 6 months after pinealectomy. Pinealectomy thus leads to prolonged changes in the time structure of the animals which manifest themselves as internal and external desynchronization of metabolic marker rhythms in adrenal and testis.
D000311:Adrenal Glands / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D010870:Pineal Gland / Q000502:physiology / Q000601:surgery; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D012313:RNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism*
D011506:Proteins; D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA