J. Arendt. Melatonin and the Mammalian Pineal Gland. — London: Chapman & Hall, 1995. — 331 p.

Abstract

Despite the rapid progress of endocrinology in the last quarter of the 20th century, it should be noted that no other gland of internal secretion, to the extent that the pineal gland, is honored to be "titular" in the scientific community or scientific journal. Indeed, the European Society for the Study of the Pituitary Gland has been actively working for many years, the Melatonin Club was founded, the Journal of Pineal Research, Advances in Pineal Research, and the European Pineal Society News are published, and international conferences and symposiums are held annually in the last decade. dedicated to the pineal gland and melatonin. The rapid development of chronobiology led to the establishment of the leading role of the pineal gland and its main hormone melatonin in the implementation of the circadian, seasonal and annual rhythms of many functional systems of the body. The monograph under review, written by the famous English researcher of the pineal gland, Josephine Arendt, is a unique publication in which one author has systematized and critically analyzed the vast amount of factual material accumulated to date on the physiological effects and mechanisms of action of melatonin. The book consists of 9 chapters, unequal both in volume and in terms of circle and the importance of the issues addressed in them. The very brief chapter 1 summarizes the history of the study of the pineal gland and the discovery of melatonin and its functions in the body. Unfortunately, there was no place in it to mention such important events as the first description of the morphological picture of the hypofunction of the pineal gland (B.P. Kucherenko, 1941), the pioneering study of A.M. Khelimsky, who in 1953 first came to conclusion about age-related involution of the pineal gland.