Statistical relationships of weight of the human pineal to age and malignancy

Abstract

A study of 147 human pineal glands from autopsy cases of all ages revealed a direct correlation between size and weight and a significant correlation of these with age but not with body weight, brain weight, sex or color. The growth pattern was nonlinear, with a sharp increase in size in the fifth and sixth decades. This increase was reduced but still apparent after removal of malignant cases from the sample. Pineal glands from malignant cases were significantly larger than the others. Histologic studies revealed a striking similarity of pineocytes from pineals of patients between ages 2 and 91, with no apparent differences in malignant cases. The authors conclude that the human pineal does not undergo cellular atrophy after puberty and that there is some relationship between the presence of malignancy and the weight of the human pineal.

The Weight of the Pineal Gland in Malignancy

“…The results of decalcification of the pineal on the mean cube root weights are given in Table III. These findings are almost the exact reverse of those published by Rodin and Overall (1967); the comparable figures are given in Table IV. TABLE IV Calculated from Rodin and Overall (1967) .…”

“…Whether this fact is of significance in producing much higher pineal weights in our non-malignant group can only be assessed when larger numbers of pineals have been examined from the different disease groups. Comparison of the malignancies encountered in the two studies show a preponderance of carcinoma in our series, whilst 17 of 46 malignancies in all age groups were leukaemias or lymphomas in Rodin and Overall's (1967) series. This finding raises the interesting possibility that the pineal gland may have a different relationship to carcinoma than to sarcoma or the reticuloses, a feature already noted in some experimental animals (Engel, 1933).…”

“…Engel (1933Engel ( , 1934Engel ( , 1935 showed that extracts of pineal tissue inhibit the growth of some experimentally induced tumours in rats and mice, whilst accentuation of growth of tumours in pinealectomized animals was found by other workers (Nakatani et al, 1940;Katagiri, 1944;Rodin, 1963;Das Gupta and Terz, 1967). The findings in experimental animals have resulted in attempts being made to treat patients suffering from malignancy with bovine pineal extracts and transplants.…”

“…Despite this, studies of the human pineal gland from patients dying of malignancy are few (Kutcherenko, 1941; Rodin and Overall, 1967). As part of an investigation into the possible relationship of the pineal gland to malignancy, in both humans and experimental animals, we have examined the pineal from a series of patients dying in this hospital.…”

“…A cube root transformation of the pineal weights was selected for statistical analysis by Rodin and Overall (1967) as satisfying both empirical and logical considerations. We have expressed our results in a similar fashion to enable comparisons to be made more easily.…”