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Adrenocortical hormone
Adrenocortical hormone One of the hormones, for example cortisol, secreted not from the internal medulla but from the external cortex of the bilateral adrenocortical glands.
RELATED TERMS--------------------------------------
Hormones
Biological compounds that communicate information at a distance. Hormones require specific receptors to begin their biological action and use second messengers to initiate the cellular process that uses that information.
Cortisol
The hormone released from the adrenal glands in response to stress or low blood glucose. Its primary mode of action in times of stress is to shut down eicosanoid synthesis. Its synthesis in the adrenal gland requires the second messenger, cyclic AMP.
Medulla
The inner part of an organ. The adrenal medulla is the center of the adrenal gland where epinephrine (adrenaline) is produced.
Cortex
The outer layer of the cerebrum, densely packed with nerve cells.
Bilateral
Affecting both sides.
SIMILAR TERMS--------------------------------------
Adrenal cortex
The outer portion of the adrenal gland that secretes hormones that are vital to the body.
Adrenal failure
A condition in which the adrenal glands do not produce enough of the adrenal hormones that control important functions such as blood pressure. The adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys. The adrenal is made up of an outer layer (the cortex) and an inner portion (the medulla). The adrenal glands produce hormones that help control the heart rate, blood pressure, the way the body uses food, and other vital functions. The adrenal cortex secretes steroid (cortisone-related) hormones and mineralocortoids that regulate the levels of minerals such as sodium and potassium in the blood.
Adrenal gland
The pair of adrenal glands are located on top of both kidneys. Adrenal glands work hand-in-hand with the hypothalamus and pituitary gland.
Adrenal glands
Two glands, one on top of each kidney, which produce a variety of hormones that affect nearly every body system.
Adrenal medulla
"The inner portion of adrenal gland. (The outer portion is the adrenal cortex). The adrenal medulla makes epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline). Epinephrine is secreted in response to low blood levels of glucose as well as exercise and stress; it causes the breakdown of the storage product glycogen to the sugar glucose in the liver, facilitates the release of fatty acids from adipose (fat) tissue, causes dilation (widening) of the small arteries within muscle and increases the output of the heart. Norepinephrine secreted by the adrenal gland acts to narrow blood vessels and raise blood pressure. Underfunction of the adrenal medulla is virtually unknown. However, a tumor called a pheochromocytoma produces norepinephrine and epinephrine and is equivalent to overfunction of the adrenal medulla. Pheochromocytomas arise within the adrenal medulla or elsewhere in the sympathetic nervous system. They typically cause hypertension (high blood pressure) that may be paroxysmal (sharply episodic) with attacks of headaches, feelings of apprehension, sweating, flushing of the face, nausea and vomiting, palpitations and tingling of the extremities (the arms and legs)."
Adrenaline
Or epinephrine. One of two chemicals (the other is norepinephrine) released by the adrenal gland that increases the speed and force of heartbeats. It dilates the airways to improve breathing and narrows blood vessels in the skin and intestine so that an increased flow of blood reaches the muscles and allows them to cope with the demands of exercise.
Adrenals
Located on the top of the kidneys, these glands that are responsible for the production of stress-related hormones such as cortisol, DHEA, and adrenaline.
Adrenergic
This refers to neuronal or neurologic activity caused by neurotransmitters such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine.
Adrenocortical carcinoma
Adrenocortical carcinoma is a carcinoma of the cortex (outer layer) of the adrenal gland. While most tumors of the adrenal cortex are benign (adenomas) and only occasionally cause Cushing's syndrome, the malignant form makes up about 3% of all cortical tumors and requires surgery and sometimes chemotherapy. Excess cortisol production may require suppression with ketoconazole or metyrapone. Production of aldosterone or androgens by carcinomas is extremely rare.
Adrenocortiotrophic hormone
The hormone released from the pituitary gland. It interacts with receptors on the adrenal gland to begin the process of cortisol and DHEA production. ACTH uses the second messenger cyclic AMP to signal target cells in the adrenal gland.
Adrenoleukodystrophy
A rare genetic (inherited) disorder characterized by the breakdown or loss of the myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells in the brain and progressive dysfunction of the adrenal gland. Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is one of a group of genetic disorders called the leukodystrophies that cause damage to the myelin sheath of the nerve fibers in the brain. The myelin sheath is a fatty covering which acts as an electrical insulator.
PREVIOUS AND NEXT TERMS--------------------------------------
Abidancy
The proclivity to seek and defend a territory, residence or home-ground upon which to reside and fulfill the metabolic needs to sustain life; one of the five universal exigencies of being human.
Acrotomophilia
1. a paraphilia of the stigmatic/eligibilic type in which sexuoerotic arousal and facilitation or attainment of orgasm are responsive to, and contingent on a partner who is an amputee [from Greek, akron, extremity + tomo, a cutting + -philia; a liking of an amputated extremity]. An acrotomophile is erotically excited by the stump(s) of the amputee partner. 2. the condition of being dependent on the appearance or fantasy of one's partner as an amputee in order to obtain erotic arousal and facilitate or achieve orgasm. The reciprocal paraphilic condition, namely self-amputation, is apotemnophilia.
Adam and Eve principle
In embryological development and subsequently, the principle that nature's primary template is that which differentiates a female, and that something must be added to induce the differentiation of a male.
Adam principle
In fetal life, the differentiation of a male requires that something be added, in particular Müllerian duct Inhibiting Substance (MIS) and testosterone. Partial or complete differentiation otherwise takes place, regardless of chromosomal sex
Adolescent gynecomastia
In about 15 percent of boys at puberty, the growth of glandular tissue and enlargement of the breasts in response to the hormones of puberty. Typically the enlargement is minimal and self-correcting, but in rare cases resembles that of a girl and requires corrective plastic surgery (mastectomy). The etiology, though obscure, is attributed either to an atypical utilization of the low level of estrogen normally produced by the testicles of the male, or to an atypical resistance to the counteracting effect of testosterone.
Adrenocortical hormone
Agalmatophilia
A fictional paraphilia, not yet observed as a syndrome, in which the sexuoerotic stimulus is a nude statue or model of a human being [from Greek, agalma, image + -philia].
Agenesis
Partial or complete failure of an organ or part of the body to form or develop.
Allosex-aviodancy
a socially dictated constraint on personal disclosure to members of the other, but not one's own, sex. It affects both behavior (as in locker-room nudity, for example) and communication, as in sexual joking
Ambiguous genitalia
A birth defect of the sex organs in which, from their embryonically undifferentiated state, they have failed to become fully differentiated as either male or female, but are unfinished. At birth the baby's sex cannot be declared on the basis of visual inspection. Diagnostically, the term is hermaphroditism or intersexuality. Embryologically, it is not possible to develop a complete penis and scrotum together with a complete vagina and vulva.
Ambisexuality
Having characteristics shared by both sexes [from Greek, ambi, both + sex]--in human beings, for example, nipples; pubic hair; birth-defective genitalia that look hermaphroditically ambiguous or intersexed; or mating behavior shared by both sexes.
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