Endocrinology Flashcards
(115 cards)
principles of endocrinology
- hormones are secreted by ductless glands, and allow distant cells to communicate
hormone function
- chemical messengers
- by transmitting information via blood borne chemicals, that will regulate and coordinate distant organs
endocrine vs nervous
nervous system: fast, precise, short, constant and works within an external environement
endocrine system: slow generalized, long, amplified and workins within an internal enviornment
- both pathways working together are called neuroendocrine interactions
hormones are in 3 distinct classes of chemicals
- peptides and proteins
- amines
- steriods
peptides and proteins
- chains of amino acids (can be short or long)
- contains the majority of animal hormones (insulin)
amines
- derived from tyrosine (the amino acid), secreted by thyroid and adrenal medulla
steriods
- neutral lipids derived from cholesterol
- secreted bt adrenal cortex and gonads
cholesterole
- different hormones mat be derived from a common precursor
- they will share chemical similarities
- however small changes in chemical composition can have huge changes in biological responses
why is structure important
- knowing the structure will tell you about the solubility, synthesis, storage, secretion, transport, effect type, duration of response and half-life
- structure
- if struture is know, we can synthesize them exogenously and fix deficiencies (growth and insulin hormones) and trick the body to perform functions
peptide and catecholamines
- hydrophilic ( they like water)
- highly soluble in water, do not like lipids
steroids and thyroid hormones
- lipophilic ( they like lipids)
- poor water solubility and high lipid solubility
- dont want to be in the plasma, cant store it in the cell
hormone synthesis
- peptides: produced just like any other proteins (ribosomes on rough endoplasmic reticulum)
- but because they need to be released on demand, they need to be kept separated from other proteins
1. preprohormone is synthesized
2. pruned to a pro hormone and then an active hormone in the golgi complex
3. final hormone gets concentrated in golgi complex, packaged into vesicles
4. released via exocytosis upon stimulation. allows the release of large quantities of hormones in short notice
(fuse with cell membrane and get released through excocytosis
peptide synthesis
- the bits from the pruning are often secreted with the hormones for functions
- cleave and stay together for either:
- hormone controlling melanin production (affects appetite and sexual arousal)
- hormone stimulating secretion of gluccocorticoid hormones
steroid synthesis
- all start with cholesterol as precursor. either from diet or synthesis it from LDL
- enzymes are required to modify the cholesterol framework (to make it function) enzymes are found in mitochondria or endoplasmic reticulum, but cells/organs can only produce the hormone for which it has the completeed enzymes
- once produced steroid hormones cannot be stored, the are lipholic so they diffuse through the plasma membrane. rate of production is limited by synthsis
- some get further modified (different hormones or more modified hormones) in the blood or other organs
amine hormone synthesis
- unique pathway
- they are derived from tyrosine
- both thyroid and catecholamines are stored until they are secreted
- thyroid hormones also undergos further processing after being released
ex. bodt cannot produce t3 so we produce t4 and cleave it to t3 for body to use
hormone transport peptides
- travel most often freely in the plasma or sometimes bound to a specific carrier protein
hormone transport steroids and amines
- lipophilic cant dissolve in large enough quantities, they are dragged around by plasma proteins
protein carriers
- some can only carry specific hormones
- others like albumin only take hitchhikers
- only free lipophilic hormones are active. bound hormones cant diffuse and bind to a receptor with no effect
hormone transport inactivation
- once a free H has interacted with its target cell it gets inactivated
- hormones that are bound to a carrier protein act as a reserve pool in the bloodstream
- the goal is to maintain hormonal equilibrium through feedback loops - need to focus on the free active portion of H, not the bound protion
tropic hormones
- the sole function of a H is to regulate the production and secretion of another hormone
- target: endocrine tissue
non tropic hormone
- primarily act as a non-endocrine target tissue
target: non endocrine tissue
hormones effect
- only specific target cells can respond to each H because only they have the receptors for binding with a particular H
- cell receptors on outside can accept or deny
- receptor in cell lipophatic
membrane receptors
- hydrophilic peptides and catecholamines cant pass through lipid membranes of their target cells
- they bind to the receptor outside the plasma membrane
- open an ion channel (Na or Ca)
- activate secondary messanger systems
- messangers change protein activity in the cell (enzymes) to get the effect
internal receptors
- lipophilic steroids and thyroid H (when free ) pass through plasma membrane, and binds to specific receptors inside the cell
- typically those receptors are transcription factors that regulate gene expression and protein production (rate and type) in that cell
these H usually increase the rate of transcription
BUT: some reactions are too quick to require gene transcription. steroid H have receptors in the plasma membrane, which change ionic fluxes or enzymes activity