“…Ultrastructural changes suggest an age-associated decrease in the secretory processes in the pinealocyte of white-footed mice [20]. Increased signs of morphological degeneration in human pineals as a function of age was detected by means of light microscopy [15], electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis [I] and computed tomography [46], With regard to secretory activity in the pineal gland of old animals, a decrease of pineal melatonin synthesis has Received: August 29, 1985 Accepted after revision: December 12, 1985 been described for the rat [28,32], the golden hamster [27,31,33], the gerbil [19] and humans [4, 6. 16, 41,42].…”