Pineal gland research with high resolution 3D imaging techniques

The pineal gland is an endocrine gland in the brain, which produces melatonin under the control of the central clock and the suprachiasmatic nucleus [1]. Calcifications and cysts in the human pineal gland are a common finding in Magnetic Resonance and Computed Tomography brain imaging and in the post-mortem examination of the organ. Though, the capabilities of biomedical imaging have rapidly increased over the past decades, the conventional imaging techniques do not provide high-quality 3D images of the whole pineal gland with detailed visualization of the organ morphology. We used X-ray Phase Contrast micro-Tomography imaging as an effective tool 3D investigation of the pineal gland.Calcareous deposits, which are known as pineal calcifications, are a normal physiologic phenomenon in PG [2]. Calcium content and pineal concretions have been studied for a long time because of their association with aging [3] and neurodegenerative diseases [4, 5]. Some studies have shown that pineal calcification is significantly higher in presence of Alzheimer diseases (AD) [4,5]. Researchers suggest that the PG's calcified deposits and cysts are associated with decreased number of functioning pinealocytes and reduced melatonin productions. In this framework, we characterized the calcifications structure and cysts of the human brain pineal glands and we studied the vascularization and the connectivity tissue structure of the pineal gland. In particular, in the framework of the Russia-Italy bilateral- project CNR/RFBR (2018- 2020) we have investigated the calcareous deposits and structure of soft tissue in human pineal glands at different ages with high resolution X ray phase contrast tomography and micro-CT.