Endocrine organs

 Produce hormones in small amounts

 Chemical signals
 Secrete into the bloodstream
 Distributed throughout the body
 Affects target cells/organs where ever
they are in the body
 What determines what the targets are?
Hypophysis
 Pituitary gland
 Found in the sella turcica
 Derived from oral ectoderm (Rathke’s
pouch) and nervous tissue growing
together
Hypophysis
 Actually composed of two glands
 The anterior pituitary/lobe or the
adenohypophysis or the pars distalis
 Pars tuberalis and pars intermedia
 The posterior pituitary/lobe or the
neurohypophysis or the pars nervosa
 Infundibulum/neural stalk
Difference between lobes
 The anterior lobe actually synthesizes
the hormones that it releases
 The posterior lobe simply releases the
hormones that are produced by
neurons in the brain (the
hypothalamus)
 Essentially the pars nervosa is releasing
__________.
Adenohypophysis
 3 cells types are apparent
 Chromophobes
 Chromophiles
 Acidophils
 basophils
Neurohypophysis
 Composed of 100,000 neurons that
arise in the paraventricular (oxytocin)
and supraoptic (vasopressin) nuclei
 Cells end on a neurohemal organ
 A structure where neurons end on blood
vessels not other neurons, muscles or
glands
Actions of the hormones
 The pituitary gland affects more
organs and tissues than any other
organ in the body, hence
 The Master Gland
Other glands
 Adrenals
 Medulla
 Cortex
 Islets of Langerhans
 Thyroid
 Parathyroids
Adrenals
 Besides the
standard location of
the adrenals (on
top of the kidneys)
adrenal tissue is
sometimes also
found in other
locations in the
abdomen
 A ball, of yarn

A bundle or band

A network
Adrenal medulla
 Essentially a sympathetic ganglion
where the postganglionic cells have
lost their axons and dendrites
 They store epinephrine (80%) and
norepinephrine which is released upon
sympathetic stimulation
Epi vs Norepi cells
 Epinephrine secreting cells have
smaller granules that are less electron
dense and fill the vacuoles
 Norepinephrine secreting cells have
larger granules that are more electron
dense and are irregularly shaped.
Islets of Langerhans of
Pancreas
 The endocrine part of the pancreas
 Alpha cells -> glucagon
 Beta cells -> insulin
 Delta cells -> somatostatin
Thyroid
 Peculiar organ structurally
 Composed of follicles
 Follicles filled with colloid
 thyroglobulin
 Parafollicular cells produce another
hormone
 Calcitonin – increase blood calcium and
stimulates osteogenesis
Colloid contains
thyroglobulin which when
needed for secretion is
converted to T3 and T4
forms of thyroxin.
Parathyroid
 Chief cells produce
 Parathormone
 Raises blood calcium and stimulates
osteoclastic activity
 Chief Cells
(Parathormone)

Oxyphil cells (?)