Chapter 18 Flashcards
Hormone
A molecule that is released in one part of the body but regulates the activity of cells in other parts of the body. Most hormones enter interstitial fluid and then the bloodstream. The circulating blood delivers hormones to cells throughout the body.
Exocrine glands
Secrete their products into ducts that carry the secretions into body cavities, into the lumen of an organ, or to the outer surface of the body. Include sudoriferous (sweat), sebaceous (oil), mucous, and digestive glands.
Endocrine glands
Secrete hormones, which circulating blood delivers to target tissues. Include the pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, and pineal glands.
Endocrine system
All endocrine glands and hormone-secreting cells. Include the hypothalamus, thymus, pancreas, ovaries, testes, kidneys, stomach, liver, small intestine, skin, heart, adipose tissue, and placenta.
Receptors
A specific protein that hormones, like neurotransmitters, chemically bind to to influence their target cells.
Down-regulation
A decrease in the number of target cell receptors when a hormone is present in excess. Makes a target cell less sensitive to a hormone.
Up-regulation
An increase in the number of target receptors when a hormone is deficient. Makes a target cell more sensitive to a hormone.
Circulating hormones
Hormones that pass from the secretory cells that make them into interstitial fluid and then into the blood. Most endocrine hormones are this.
Local hormones
Act locally on neighboring cells or on the same cell that secreted them without entering the bloodstream.
What are the two types of local hormones? Describe them
- Paracrines: local hormones that act on neighboring cells.
- Autocrines: local hormones that act on the same cell that secreted them.
What are the three types of lipid-soluble hormones?
- Steroid hormones
- Thyroid hormones (T3 and T4)
- Nitric oxide (NO)
What are the three types of water-soluble hormones?
- Amine hormones
- Peptide hormones and protein hormones
- Eicosanoid hormones (prostaglandins (PGs) and leukotrienes (LTs))
What are the three functions of transport proteins?
- They make lipid-soluble hormones temporarily water-soluble, thus increasing their solubility in blood.
- They retard passage of small hormone molecules through the filtering mechanism in the kidneys, thus slowing the rate of hormone loss in the urine.
- They provide a ready reserve of hormone, already present in the bloodstream.
Free fraction
Molecules of a lipid-soluble hormone that are not bound to a transport protein. Diffuses out of capillaries, binds to receptors, and triggers responses.
What is the action of lipid-soluble hormones?
Bind to receptors inside target cells.
What is the action of water-soluble hormones?
Cannot diffuse through the lipid bilayer of the plasma membrane and bind to receptors inside the target cells, like lipid-soluble hormones. Instead, they bind to receptors embedded in the plasma membranes of target cells.
First messenger
The hormone. Causes production of a second messenger.
Second messenger
Is located inside the cell, where specific hormone-stimulated responses take place (Eg. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate AKA cyclic AMP (cAMP)).
Permissive effect
When the action of one hormone on its target cell requires simultaneous or recent exposure to a second hormone. Sometimes the permissive hormone increases the number of receptors for the other hormone, and sometimes it promotes the synthesis of an enzyme required for the expression of the other hormone’s effects.
Synergistic effect
When the effect of two hormones acting together is greater than the sum of their individual effects.
Antagonistic effects
When one hormone opposes the actions of another hormone.
What three things is hormone secretion regulated by?
- Signals from the nervous system
- Chemical changes in the blood
- Other hormones
Pituitary gland
AKA hypophysis; the “master” endocrine gland; secretes several hormones that control other endocrine glands. Contains cells that secrete 7 different hormones that play important roles in the regulation of virtually all aspects of growth, development, metabolism, and homeostasis.
What two parts can the pituitary gland be divided into?
- Anterior pituitary
- Posterior pituitary