Adrenocortical hormones secretion

The observation that mitotane (Lysodren) could produce adrenocortical necrosis in animals led to its use in the palliation of inoperable adrenocortical adenocarcinomas. A reduction in both tumor size and adrenocortical hormone secretion can be achieved in about half of the patients taking the drug. Because normal adrenocortical cells also are affected, endogenous glucocorticoid production should be monitored and replacement therapy administered when appropriate. 

In humans, most steroids function as hormones, chemical messengers that are secreted by endocrine glands and carried through the bloodstream to target tissues. There are two main classes of steroid hormones the sex hormones, which control maturation, tissue growth, and reproduction, and the adrenocortical hormones, which regulate a variety of metabolic processes. 

Adrenocortical hormone (Section 27.6) A steroid hormone secreted by the adrenal glands. There are two types of adrenocortical hormones mineralocorticoids and glucocorticoids. 

Corticotropin (ACTH) is an anterior pituitary hormone that stimulates the adrenal cortex to produce and secrete adrenocortical hormones, primarily the glucocorticoids. 

Even a single dose of corticotropin can cause inhibition of thyrotrophic hormone secretion (19), although the effect is brief. Conversely, thyroid hormones increase the sensitivity of adrenocortical cells in vitro to corticotropin (20) and hyperthyroidism increases sensitivity to corticotropin (21,22). 

Adrenocortical hormones hormones secreted by adrenal cortex. 

Concentrations of hypothalamic and anterior pituitary peptides and adrenal glucocorticoids are measured accurately and at low concentrations in body fluids using immunoassay and instrumental methods. Relying on basal hormone concentrations for confirmmg adrenocortical dysfunction, however, can be problematic because of the episodic and circadian secretion of the hormones that regulate the HPA axis. For example, some individuals have an abnormality of the HPA axis, but still maintain basal cortisol and ACTH secretion within die reference interval of the normal population. Dynamic testing of the HPA axis helps define abnormalities that are not reflected in basal hormone secretion. 

In summation, it seems fair to say that to date there is no undisputed evidence that ascorbic acid plays any part in assisting the synthesis or secretion of the adrenocortical hormones. As Long himself has shown (1947) the scorbutic guinea pig appears to respond quite normally to ACTH. There is no evidence of cortical failure in human scurvy. Injec-... 

Adrenocortical hormones, see also under Adrenocortical steroids and under names of individual hormones activity, VII, 294 IX, 163ff. assay of, IX, 162, 175 criteria of, IX, 165-168 unit of, IX, 162, 164 anoxic anoxia and secretion of, X, 119 ascorbic acid and, IX, 178,199 X, 107, 108-111... 

Although the regulation of the secretion of vasopressin appeared simple a few decades ago and seemed to involve only the activation of the osmoreceptor, it is now clear that a number of factors not related to osmolarity also regulate vasopressin secretion. They include blood volume receptors, systemic barorecep-tors and hormones such as catecholamine, prostaglandins, adrenocortical hormones, thyroid hormones, and the renin-angiotensin system. 

Adrenocortical hormones are thus named because they are secreted by the cortex (the outer layer) of the adrenal glands. Adrenocxirtical hormones are typically characterized by a carbonyl group or hydroxyl group at Cl 1. Examples include cortisone and cortisol. 

The physiological action of ACTH is to increase the secretion of adrenocortical hormones and to regulate growth and differentiation of... 

An endocrine gland situated above each kidney. Anatomically it can be divided into the medulla, which is part of the sympathetic nervous system, and the cortex. The cortex can be sub-divided into the outer layer, the zona glomerulosa which secretes aldosterone, and the zona fasciculata and zona reticularis which secrete most of the adrenocortical hormones. Adrenaline is secreted by the adrenal medulla. 

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