Rosette gland

Bushmann PJ, Atema J (1996) Nephropore rosette glands of the lobster Homarus americanus. possible sources of urine pheromones. J Crust Biol 16 221-231... 

Pineoblastoma resembles medulloblastoma (Fig. 20.38 see Fig. 20.21) except for its origin in the pineal gland (see Table 20.8). Fibrillary rosettes may be evident and are more common than Flexner-Wintersteiner rosettes. Synaptophysin is most useful in identifying neuronal differentiation in these tumors (see Fig. 20.38A) because NF immunoreactivity is often negative (Box 20.3). Some tumors express retinal-S antigen. It would be interesting to know whether this sight-specific marker is more common in pineoblastomas than in other medulloblastomas. 

A second FTS RIA has been utilized to detect thymulin in extracts of pig and calf thymus (350-500 pg/g tissue) glands but not pig spleens (less than 2 pg/g tissue), which is consistent with a thymic origin for FTS. This assay has also been used to detect FTS in serum specimens. However, the assay is very cumbersome to perform since in order for it to be applicable to serum, samples must be filtered with an Amicon membrane, concentrated, and chromatographed on Sephadex G-25. Nevertheless, serum specimens obtained from thymectomized mice or pigs were found to be almost totally devoid (less than 2 pg/ml) of FTS immunoactivity and the greater than 25-fold decrease of serum FTS immunoactivity correlated with a 60-fold (from to i) decrease in FTS-like bioactivity as detected in the rosette-azathioprine assay. 

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