Microstructural aspect of pineal body, the population of pinealocytes

Pineal tissue was consists of 2 cell types known as pinealocyte and astrocyte cell. Furthermore, microanatomical research of pineal body is a rare procedure conducted for several years even in Indonesia, and it was necessarily essential to reconfirm its microanatomical aspect. Aim: This study was aimed to enrich the scope of knowledge regarding with comprehensible mammalian pinealocytes. Methods: This study applies an observational descriptive design that describes the population of pinealocytes within the pineal body. 3 Wistar rats (Rattus novergicus), especially their pineal tissue, was extracted by carrying pinealectomy method out as a histotechnical procedure in an attentive laboratory setting. The hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining gives a gross feature of blue-stained nuclear cells and their environment surround them. At least, a microscopic data would be compared those samples with the previous study that had presented their electron microscopy. Result: The characteristic of pinealocytes stained by HE are basophilic, abundant, and they have a regular nucleus. On the other side, astrocytes have longer cytoplasmic processus found around the perivascular area and among the pinealocytes one. Conclusion: The quantities of pinealocytes appear as the most dominant cell that fills the inner part of the pineal body and probable to synchronize the production of melatonin and entirely supported by their neighbor, astrocytes. Keywords: histotechnical method, pinealectomy, epiphysis