Library · Anatomy
Anterior pituitary
Make it clearer
The pituitary is a small gland with two lobes, and the anterior pituitary is one of them. Its other name is the adenohypophysis. Five hormones come out of it, and each one is made by a different type of endocrine cell, that is, a cell that releases its product into the blood.
The anterior pituitary does not decide on its own: it takes orders from the hypothalamus, the region of the brain sitting just above it. The hypothalamus makes releasing hormones, which say release, and inhibiting hormones, which say stop. Those hormones leave the nerve terminals and empty into the hypophyseal portal blood, a short loop of vessels that carries them straight to the anterior lobe. The hypothalamus sends the message through a short, direct vein, not from a distance.
Growth hormone is the clearest example of that dual control. One hypothalamic hormone, growth hormone-releasing hormone, stimulates it; another, somatostatin, holds it back.
In brief
The anterior pituitary, or adenohypophysis, is one of the two lobes of the pituitary gland and secretes five hormones from five types of endocrine cells.
The hypothalamus runs it: hypothalamic releasing or inhibiting hormones enter the hypophyseal portal blood from nerve terminals and travel down to the anterior lobe.
The hypothalamus sends the message through a short, direct vein, not from a distance.
Growth hormone shows that dual control: growth hormone-releasing hormone stimulates it and somatostatin holds it back.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingPhysiology, Pituitary Gland, StatPearlsPublished
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