The pituitary gland (or hypophysis) is an important part of the endocrine system.
It is at the base of the brain between the eyes. The pituitary is attached to the hypothalamus, which is also a gland. The pituitary controls a whole range of vital functions by secreting hormones.
The pituitary gland consists of two parts: the anterior pituitary and the posterior pituitary. It is functionally linked to the hypothalamus by the pituitary stalk (also called the infundibulum).
The hypothalamus releases factors down the pituitary stalk to the pituitary gland where they cause the release of pituitary hormones. Although the pituitary gland is known as the 'master' endocrine gland, both of the lobes are under the control of the hypothalamus. Endocrine cells of the anterior pituitary are controlled by regulatory hormones released by neurosecretory cells in the hypothalamus.
The gland releases several kinds of hormones.
The endocrine cells of the anterior pituitary are controlled by neurosecretion from the hypothalamus. The anterior pituitary cells synthesizes and secretes these important endocrine hormones:
The two gonadotropins;
Here one hormone is produced:
The posterior pituitary is actually an extension of the hypothalamus. Neurosecretory cells in the hypothalamus have axons that go right down into the posterior pituitary. The posterior pituitary stores and secretes the hormones produced by these neurosecretory cells:
Oxytocin is one of the few hormones to create a positive feedback loop. For example, uterine contractions stimulate the release of oxytocin from the posterior pituitary, which, in turn, increases uterine contractions. This positive feedback loop continues throughout birth labour.
Endocrine system |
Adrenal gland - Corpus luteum - Hypothalamus - Ovaries - Pancreas - Parathyroid gland - Pineal gland - Pituitary gland - Testes - Thyroid gland - Hormone |
This article uses material from the Wikipedia Simple English article Pituitary gland, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki Simple English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.