title: Sexual dimorphism among calbindin-D28K immunoreactive cells in the rat pineal body.
abstract: Calbindin antibodies have been used in neuroanatomical studies to give excellent cytoarchitectural staining and visualization of a Golgi-like cellular morphology. Calbindin-D28K immunoreactivity used in rat pineal gland as a marker detected two classes of pineal cells. One class of small cells representing exclusively glial cells was strongly immunoreactive, and presented a large variety of individual shapes. The majority were a pyramidal shape with one or more processes while others displayed a cytoplasmic lipid droplet. Some small cells occurred around pericapillary spaces. The second class of calbindin-D28K positive cells corresponding to type II pinealocytes were characterized by their large size and less intensive labelling. Type II pinealocytes were round or rectangular; the nucleus was infolded and large with a prominent nucleolus. These large cells were preferentially distributed in the vicinity of vessels and assembled in a cluster of more than ten cells. The lack of S-100 and myeloperoxidase immunoreactivities in large calbindin-D28K cells excluded their possible characterization as glial cells and mononuclear phagocytes, while their size (> 15 microns) excluded microglial cells. A sex difference was detected between large calbindin-D28K positive cells. The mean calculated number of large positive cells for males was 6361 +/- 1504 (n = 8) compared to 2162 +/- 1235 (n = 7) for females. No significative difference was detected between males and females for small calbindin-D28K positive cells.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Histologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bastianelli
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pochet
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers; D064092:Calbindin 1; D064026:Calbindins; D005260:Female; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D009195:Peroxidase / Q000378:metabolism; D010870:Pineal Gland / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D064030:S100 Calcium Binding Protein G / Q000378:metabolism*; D009418:S100 Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D012727:Sex Characteristics
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; C576500:Calb1 protein, rat; D064092:Calbindin 1; D064026:Calbindins; D064030:S100 Calcium Binding Protein G; D009418:S100 Proteins; D009195:Peroxidase