Pineal gland senescence: an emerging ageing-related pathology?

Abstract

An ageing-related pathology has recently been described as one that develops and/or progresses with increasing chronological age, that is associated with, or contributes to, functional decline and that is evidenced by studies in humans. The pineal gland is a photo-neuroendocrine organ whose primary function is to produce and secrete melatonin in response to light-dark cycle environmental cues. The gland may undergo ageing-related structural and morphological changes, including calcification, gliosis, cyst formation, and reduced density of β-adrenergic receptors, which are hypothesised to reduce melatonin secretion. Pineal gland senescence describes the ageing-related decline in neuroendocrine function, with reduced secretion of melatonin, which may contribute to ageing-related sleep disorders and disruption of other circadian-driven physiological functions and may have secondary effects such as contributing to cognitive and mood disorders related to sleep disturbance.

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Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Short, E. Ajjan, R. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1636-3725 Barber, T. M. Bhandari, S. Chazot, P. Garrison, J. L. Goyal, A. Huckstepp, R. Jamal, N. Kanamarlapudi, V. Lazar, A. Lee, T. Tavares, A. A. S. Tree, J.J. Wellington, J. Calimport, S. R. G. Bentley, B.
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Keywords:	Pineal gland, Ageing, Senescence, Ageing-related pathology, Pineal gland senescence
Dates:	Accepted: 5 September 2025 Published (online): 16 December 2025
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Medicine (Leeds)
Date Deposited:	14 Jan 2026 10:45
Last Modified:	14 Jan 2026 10:45
Published Version:	https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42000-0...
Status:	Published online
Publisher:	Springer
Identification Number:	10.1007/s42000-025-00720-9
Related URLs:	PubMed URL
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:236108

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Pineal gland senescence: an emerging ageing-related pathology?

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