Corpora arenacea

Corpora arenacea (singular: corpus arenaceum, also called brain sand or acervuli or psammoma bodies or pineal concretions) are calcified structures in the pineal gland and other areas of the brain such as the choroid plexus. Older organisms have numerous corpora arenacea, whose function, if any, is unknown. Concentrations of "brain sand" increase with age, so the pineal gland becomes increasingly visible on X-rays over time, usually by the third or fourth decade. They are sometimes used as anatomical landmarks in radiological examinations.

Chemical analysis shows that they are composed of calcium phosphate (later characterized as hydroxyapatite), calcium carbonate, magnesium phosphate, and ammonium phosphate. Recently, calcite deposits have been described as well.

References

Further reading

• Garma-Aviña, A. (2000). "Excretory Plugs from the Choroid Plexus in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of Dogs with Neurological Disease: Possible Role in the Formation of Corpora Arenacea". Journal of Comparative Pathology. 123 (2–3): 146–51. doi:10.1053/jcpa.2000.0405. PMID 11032668.
• Reiter, Russel J.; Welsh, Marcia G.; Vaughan, Mary K. (1976). "Age-related changes in the intact and sympathetically denervated gerbil pineal gland". American Journal of Anatomy. 146 (4): 427–31. doi:10.1002/aja.1001460405. PMID 941859.
• Klein, Pavel; Rubinstein, Lucien J (1989). "Benign symptomatic glial cysts of the pineal gland: a report of seven cases and review of the literature". Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 52 (8): 991–5. doi:10.1136/jnnp.52.8.991. PMC 1031840. PMID 2677249.
• Vigh, B; Vigh-Teichmann, I; Aros, B (1989). "Pineal corpora arenacea produced by arachnoid cells in the bat Myotis blythi oxygnathus". Zeitschrift für Mikroskopisch-anatomische Forschung. 103 (1): 36–45. PMID 2756745.

External links

• Histology image: 14401loa – Histology Learning System at Boston University
• Histology image: 41_03 at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center - "Pineal gland"

1. Hydroxyapatite
2. Corpus
3. Pineal gland
4. Ovary
5. Skin secretions