title: Growth patterns for acervuli in human pineal gland.
abstract: Acervuli are calcified concretions in the pineal gland (PG). Particularly interesting are their incidence and size, which are believed to affect neurological disorders and many physiological functions of PG such as regulating circadian rhythm. Despite long investigations for a century, detailed growth mechanism of acervuli has yet to be studied. Here we study the growth morphology of acervuli in human PGs by a direct visualization in 3-dimension (3-D) using a synchrotron X-ray imaging method. For an entire PG, non-aggregated acervuli show Gaussian distribution in size with 47±28 µm. The 3-D volume rendered images of acervuli reveal that the bumpy surfaces developed by lamination result in the mulberry-like structure. In addition, coalescence of multiple acervuli leads to large-scale lamination on the whole aggregate. We suggest a novel hypothesis on the growth patterns of acervuli by their nucleation density (N(d)): i) mulberry-like structure at low N(d), and ii) large-scale lamination on an aggregate at high N(d).
authors.affiliation: X-ray Imaging Center, School of Interdisciplinary Bioscience and Bioengineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea.
authors.forename: Jinkyung
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyun-Wook
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Soeun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Jee Woong
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jung Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Je
authors.forename: Im Joo
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Rhyu
mesh_terms: D022081:Cell Surface Extensions / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006801:Humans; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D010870:Pineal Gland / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000648:ultrastructure*