HUMAN ANATOMY

AND PHYSIOLOGY I
LECTURE 3:

- GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
ENDOCRINE PHYSIOLOGY
- HYPOTHAL AMUS AND
PITUITARY GL AND
Dr. George Chow
[email protected]
 Lecture outline

Introduction to the endocrine Hypothalamus and pituitary gland

system • Anatomy of hypothalamus and
• Overview of the endocrine pituitary gland
system organs • Releasing and inhibiting
• Comparison between hormones from the
autocrine, paracrine and hypothalamus
endocrine signalling • Functions of hormones released
• Differences between from anterior pituitary
endocrine and nervous • Negative feedback control of
systems pituitary hormone
• Differences between • Functions of hormones released
endocrine glands and from posterior pituitary
exocrine glands • Positive feedback control of
• Role of endocrine system in oxytocin in delivery
maintaining homeostasis

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Endocrine system

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Terms important in endocrine system
• Endocrine system – A system of our body that consists of glands and cells
that make and secret hormones.
• Endocrine gland – A gland that produces and secrets chemical substances
that are transported in blood to signal changes to other tissues and organs
in the body.
• Hormone – A chemical substance secreted by an endocrine gland.
• Endocrinology – The study of the endocrine system, in anatomy, functions,
diagnosis and treatment of diseases in endocrine glands.
• Target organ – An organ in which hormones travel to and make changes in
activity of the organ.

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Endocrine system - overview
Consists of glands and cells that secrete hormones
• Important in coordination of body functions and maintaining homeostasis
• Vital in regulating
• Body growth
Hormones travel via
• Development blood
• Metabolism
• Water and salt balance
• Reproduction
• Body alertness and stress responses Regulation of complex
body processes

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Endocrine system – comparison between autocrine,
paracrine and endocrine signaling

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What are the differences between endocrine system and
nervous system?

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What are the differences between endocrine system and
nervous system?

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Both endocrine and nervous systems are important in
maintaining homeostasis in the body
• Homeostasis refers to keeping internal body
conditions at a steady state, thus any deviation
from the normal range of body conditions will
trigger corrective mechanisms to reverse the
change back into a normal range.
• Homeostatic control is important for keeping many
body conditions constant, such as body
temperature, blood glucose level, blood pH, body
water and electrolyte contents.
• The control needs three elements to accomplish:
Receptors (detecting the change), Control center
(receiving the signal from receptors and making a
decision), and Effectors (carrying out the response
after receiving the signal from control center).
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Negative feedback loop keeps the body condition constant

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What are the differences between endocrine glands and
exocrine glands?

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What are the differences between endocrine glands and
exocrine glands?
• Endocrine glands
➢ No ducts
➢ Contain dense, fenestrated capillary networks which allow easy uptake of
hormones into bloodstream
➢ Intracellular effects leading to changes in cell metabolism

• Exocrine glands
➢ Have ducts
➢ Carry secretion to an epithelial surface or the mucosa of the digestive tract
➢ Extracellular effects such as digestion of food, secretion of sweat and sebum

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Classification of hormones
There are 4 major chemical classes of
hormones:
• Protein hormones – e.g. Insulin
• Steroid hormones – e.g. glucocorticoids,
estrogen and testosterone Insulin
(peptide hormone)
• Amino acid derivatives – e.g. thyroid
hormones
• Prostaglandins and related compounds

Estrogen
(steroid hormone)
Thyroxine
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(amino acid derivative)
Actions of protein hormones
• As protein hormones are
hydrophilic, they cannot directly
pass through the plasma
membrane.
• They bind to receptors on the cell
surface, triggering a cascade of
activation mediated by secondary
messengers in the cytoplasm. Two
common secondary messengers are
Ca2+ ions and cyclic AMP (cAMP).
• The secondary messengers bind to
other proteins such as enzymes to
activate or inhibit enzyme functions.

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 Actions of steroid hormones
• As steroid hormones are lipids, they
can directly pass through the plasma
membrane and their receptors are in
the cytoplasm or nucleus.
• Binding to the receptors in cytoplasm
leads to the translocation of the
hormone-receptor complex to the
nucleus to regulate gene
transcription, and hence translation.
• The onset time of metabolic change
has a slow response time as
transcription and translation to form
the final folded functional
protein/enzymes take 30 minutes or
more.
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How the release of hormones is controlled?
• Hormonal stimulus – One hormone released from an organ stimulates another
organ to release its hormone(s).

• Humoral stimulus – Components in the blood stimulates the release of a

hormone.

• Neural stimulus – Sympathetic neuron stimulates the release of a hormone.

• Overall, the negative feedback mechanisms are important to regulate and

tune the levels of hormones in the blood.

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Hypothalamus and pituitary gland

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Hypothalamus and pituitary gland

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Hypothalamus - overview
• An endocrine gland in the brain, receiving input and changes in the body and produces
endocrine signals in response. It belongs to both endocrine and nervous systems.
• It weighs about less than 1% of overall brain mass but performs vital functions in
hormonal regulation and survival functions of our life such as body temperature
regulation.
• Located at the base of the brain and below the thalamus.
• Play major roles in
• Regulation of water balance
• Regulation of blood pressure
• Regulation of body metabolism
• Growth
• Sensations of hunger and thirst
• Reproduction
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The pituitary gland (腦下垂體)
• The pituitary gland is connected to
hypothalamus via a stalk called
infundibulum.
• Posterior to the optic chiasm and
rest in the depression of the
sphenoid bone.
• Divided into anterior pituitary and
posterior pituitary.

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Hypothalamic releasing and inhibiting hormones

• Eight hormones produced in hypothalamus

➢ Six regulate the anterior pituitary
➢ Two are released into capillaries in the posterior pituitary

• Six releasing and inhibiting hormones stimulate or inhibit the anterior

pituitary:
➢ TRH, CRH, GnRH, and GHRH are releasing hormones that promote anterior
pituitary secretion of TSH, PRL, ACTH, FSH, LH, and GH.
➢ PIH inhibits secretion of prolactin; somatostatin inhibits secretion growth hormone
and thyroid-stimulating hormone by the anterior pituitary.

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Hypothalamic releasing and inhibiting hormones

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Anterior pituitary gland
• Adenohypophysis (anterior lobe)
constitutes the major bulk of the
pituitary gland
• Linked to hypothalamus by
hypophyseal portal system
• Primary capillaries in
hypothalamus connected to
secondary capillaries in
adenohypophysis (ie. anterior
pituitary gland) by portal venules
• Hypothalamic hormones regulate
adenohypophysis cells for their
hormonal secretions

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Functions of anterior pituitary hormones
• Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)
➢ Stimulates the production and secretion of thyroid hormones (T3 and T4) by the
thyroid gland. The thyroid hormones play a vital role in regulating metabolism,
energy homeostasis, growth, and nervous system activities.

• Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)

➢ Stimulates the adrenal gland to release stress hormones, especially cortisol.
Under stressful conditions, cortisol is released in high amounts in the blood and
regulates the body’s reaction to stress. In particular, cortisol increases glucose
metabolism, regulates blood pressure, and reduces inflammation. In addition,
cortisol plays a central role in fight or flight response, which is an adaptive
response of the body to perceived threats. Overproduction of ACTH can lead to
Cushing’s syndrome, whereas a low ACTH level can result in adrenal
insufficiency.
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Functions of anterior pituitary hormones
• Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormones (LH)
➢ They are gonadotrophins, important to stimulate the ovary to release estrogen and
progesterone and the testes to release testosterone.
➢ Both LH and FSH play important roles in regulating the growth and maturation of
sperm and egg cells. Abnormal production of these hormones causes menstruation-
related problems, sexual malfunction, and infertility.
• Growth hormone (GH)
➢ Important to stimulate growth (as an anabolic hormone) in children and participates in
maintaining various body tissues/organs in adults, including bones and skeletal
muscles. It can cause fat to be broken down for energy.
➢ Stimulate liver cells to produce insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), important for
growth of cells and tissues and stimulating their anabolic processes.
• Prolactin
➢ Important to stimulate the mammary glands to produce milk after childbirth. 25
Negative feedback control of hormone in pituitary gland

• Negative feedback loop

➢ Increased target organ hormone
levels inhibit release of hypothalamic
and/or pituitary hormones, thereby
controlling the level of the circulating
hormones from the pituitary gland.

• Example: thyroid hormone inhibits

release of TRH by hypothalamus and of
TSH by anterior pituitary

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Posterior pituitary gland
• Neurohypophysis (posterior lobe)
constitutes the posterior one-
quarter of the pituitary
• Nerve tissue, not a true gland
• Nerve cell bodies in hypothalamus
pass down the stalk as
hypothalamo–hypophyseal tract
and end in posterior lobe
• Hypothalamic neurons secrete
hormones that are stored in
neurohypophysis until released into
blood

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Positive feedback of oxytocin
• Positive feedback mechanism refers to a change in
body conditions leads to further change. This
mechanism is implicated in processes such as in
delivery process and breastfeeding.

• During delivery, the dilation of the cervix causes the

activation of stretch receptors, hypothalamus then
stimulates secretion of oxytocin from the posterior
pituitary. Oxytocin travels in the blood and reaches
the uterus to stimulate stronger contractions of the
uterine wall, leading to pushing the baby towards to
cervix and further activating stretch receptors to
create a positive feedback loop.

• The positive feedback loop ends when the delivery is

complete and there is no more stretching of the
cervix.
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Posterior pituitary gland hormone – antidiuretic hormone
(ADH)

• Antidiuretic hormone (ADH) stimulates the collecting duct in kidneys to be more permeable
to water (through increased expression of a water channel called aquaporin)
• In dehydrated condition, the blood osmotic pressure increase stimulates the hypothalamus
to release more ADH from the posterior pituitary. This leads to increased reabsorption of
water from the filtrate in the collecting duct, making a smaller and concentrated urine output
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to conserve water.
Functions of hormones released from anterior pituitary gland and posterior pituitary gland

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Summary of hormones released from anterior pituitary and posterior pituitary

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References

• Tortora, G.J., & Derrickson, B.H. (2020). Principles of anatomy and

physiology (16th ed.). John Wiley & Sons

• Saladin, K. S. (2020). Human anatomy (6th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

• Marieb, E.N., & Keller, S.M. (2021). Essentials of human anatomy &
physiology (13th ed.). Pearson.

Useful videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnQ2z-r_00s

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