<Minireview> Pineal-Gut Relations (松果体と腸との関連)

概要

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Recently, since the pineal hormone, melatonin, has been found also in the gut, pineal-gut relationshave drawn attention of many researchers. In this review, effects of melatonin on the mobility and length ofthe gut and its lymphoid tissue were discussed. It has been shown that melatonin from either enterochromaffinor pineal (or both) cells influences gut smooth muscles directly and indirectly, depending on the dose, animal'sconditions, gut region, etc.. High doses of melatonin appear to act inhibitorily on the spontaneous or5-HT-induced contraction by the Ca2+-related, K+-channel-mediated mechanism and elongate the gut length,and can stimulate Payer's patches. From the experiments using pinealectomy, melatonin, and other hormonesand their receptor antagonists, it was shown that melatonin can act stimulatively on gut smooth muscles andshorten the gut length. Such a flexible nature of melatonin's effects seems to be important in animals'physiological and pathological adaptation mechanisms and in evading the overincrease in size and complexityof these mechanisms.
弘前大学の論文