199190b0Nature1994889196307131901910028-0836196310.1038/199190b0ukNatureNatureNATUREnatureNature is a weekly international journal publishing the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature also provides rapid, authoritative, insightful and arresting news and interpretation of topical and coming trends affecting science, scientists and the wider public./nature/journal/v199/n4889issueJournal homeArchiveCurrent issueAdvance online publicationPrivacy policySubscribeNature Publishing GroupCurrent issue199190b0Pinealoma : a Variety of Argentaffinoma?
AU  - COSTERO, ISAAC
AU  - BARROSO-MOGUEL, ROSARIONational Institute of Cardiology, Department of Pathology, Mexico City, Mexico.
AU  - EARLE, KENNETH M.Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C.SEROTONIN (5-hydroxytryptamine) contained in the gastrointestinal tract is intimately associated with the Kultschitzky type of cells1. Carcinoid tumours arise from such cells so their serotonin content is very important2; apparently, the majority, or maybe all, the symptoms of the so-called carcinoid syndrome must be attributed to the presence of serotonin at the level of the tumour3.Histochemically, the serotonin contained in Kultschitzky cells and in carcinoid tumours may be demonstrated as intracytoplasmic granules intensely argentamn and faintly positive or negative to chromaffin reaction4.
The parenchymal cells of pinealoma (Fig. 1) behave as Kultschitzky cells and carcinoid cells ; thus, they reduce silver ammoniacal solutions and do not show affinity for chromium salts. For that reason it is possible that they also contain serotonin. This substance is very abundant in the nervous tissue of the brain, especially at the level of the basal nuclei, close to the pineal body. Here, serotonin could be secreted, stored or eliminated by the brain5.
We do not know of any reference relating serotonin to either pineal body or pinealomata, nor any which refers to a clinical syndrome comparable with the carcinoid tumour in pinealoma. Since this syndrome was not discussed until 1956, it is possible that it has not been noticed in patients with pinealoma either; on the other hand, only in malignant carcinoids having hepatic meta-stases has this syndrome been demonstrated, and no cases of metastatic pinealoma are so far known.
Pinealoma is a rare tumour. From Frazier-Grants collection we were only able to utilize one, and from Vincents collection we obtained five more. Since all of them had been fixed in 10 per cent formalin for a long time we could not undertake biological determinations of either serotonin or catecholamines. On the other hand, the content of serotonin and of norepinephrin is relatively low in the normal pineal body, but such a consideration does not clarify the histochemical significance of argen-taffin cells in pinealomata, since in the normal organ the number of argentamn cells is scarce, and its morphology is notably different from that of neoplastic argentamn cells.
Fig. 1. Pinealoma. The parenchymatous cells of the tumour have
numerous intracytoplasmic argentamn granulations (Rio Hortega
method)
Similar differences and resemblances are found in other tumours formed by argentaffin cells. Special mention should be mads of carotid body chemodoctoma. In this tumour, parenchymal cells emit a long process ending in a juxtavascular club-shaped thickening6, and they are quite similar to the normal pineal body parenchymal cells7, as demonstrated by tissue culture8. Such unipolar cells are associated in chemodectoma with argentaffin cells, in such a way that in the latter they closely embrace the former9; in the narrow space between the embracing argentaffin cell and the unipolar chief cell, nerve endings running towards the Hering nerve are located. In the case of pinealoma, synaptic complexes similar to those in chemodectoma are demonstrated utilizing Rio Hortegas method. Moreover, both the carotid body and normal epiphyses receive abundant efferent nerve supply. Notice the similarity between the normal carotid body and chemodectoma on one hand, and between pineal body and pinealoma on the other hand. If we add to such similarities the observation by Hughes and Smith10, who have described a chemodectoma in the pineal region, it seems justified to insist on the hypothesis of the aforementioned authors according to which the pineal body could be a chemo-receptor organ.Erspamer, , V., and Asero, , B., Nature, 169, 800 (1952).PubMedISIChemPortLembeck, , F., Nature, 172, 910 (1953).ISIChemPortSjoerdsma, , A., Weissbach, , H., and Udenfriend, , S., Amer. J. Med., 20, 520 (1956).PubMedISIChemPortPearse, , A. G. E., Riv. Istoch. Norm. Pat., 2, 103 (1956).ChemPortUdenfriend, , S., Weissbach, , H., and Bogdanski, , D. F., Ann N.Y. Acad. Med. Sci., 66/3, 602 (1957).ChemPortCostero, , I., and Barroso-Moguel, , R., Amer. J. Path., 38, 127 (1961).PubMedISIChemPortRio Hortega, , P. del, in Penfield, W., Cytology and Cellular Pathology of the Nervous System, 2, 365 (1932).Costero, , I., and Chevez, , A. Z., Amer. J. Path., 40, 337 (1962).PubMedISIChemPortBarroso-Moguel, , R., and Costero, , I., Amer. J. Path., 41, 515 (1962).Hughes, , E. B., and Smith, , W. T., Proc. Second Intern. Cong. Neuropath., London, 1, 114 (1955).