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Course: Health and medicine > Unit 1
Lesson 4: Endocrine system introductionThe hypothalamus and pituitary gland
What makes the endocrine organs tick? Find out in this video about the hypothalamus and pituitary glands! Discover how the hypothalamus uses hormones to signal the pituitary gland, influencing the release of hormones that control bodily functions. Learn about the anterior and posterior pituitary, and the hormones they release, from growth hormone to prolactin. Created by Ryan Scott Patton.
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- The previous video placed ADH and oxytocin under hypothalamus while this video places those hormones under the posterior pituitary--is there a reason for that?(13 votes)
- Yes, really the posterior pituitary is really an extension of hypothalamus. The neurons that release ADH and Oxytocin (called neurosecretory cells) have their cell body in the hypothalamus and their axons extend down into the posterior pituitary where they release these hormones into the bloodstream.(27 votes)
- Is there someone who is born without the Hypothalamus or some other glands and if what happens ?(6 votes)
- "The hypothalamus is one of those organs that you can't live without. "
Is the hypothalamus an organ or a gland...?(3 votes)
- How do hormones affect only specific effector sites?(5 votes)
- Only certain sites have receptors sensitive to that hormone. Also, there are differences in affinity.(15 votes)
- What about the estrogen and the progesterone?(5 votes)
- both are sex hormones and are released from gonads(6 votes)
- How does the Pituitary gland and the hypothalamus control the body?(4 votes)
- I would say watch the Endocrine series from the beginning as it is a rather complex interaction between those two and many other endocrine glands(8 votes)
- Why is the pituitary gland known as the "master gland" when it is literally depending on and is being controlled by the hypothalamus for each one of it's secretion ?(4 votes)
- the pituitary has that name because that tiny pea sized piece of brilliance signals almost every hormone receptor site to produce and release hormones. No functional activities would happen chemically if this gland didn't initiate it.(7 votes)
- do male and female both have oxytocin and only the female uses it? or do only females have oxytocin in their posterior pituitary gland?(3 votes)
- Oxytocin is released by both genders. Oxytocin rises with feelings of love and affection. It is beneficial to all people as it rises with hugs, feelings of love as well as orgasm. The mother and the fetus both release oxytocin to increase maternal uterine contractions that allow birth to occur. And the hormone also works in the female to allow milk let-down or release from the mammary gland. Oxytocin has been studied in other animals, such as dogs and it rises when the dog likes us and sees us and we pet the dog.(8 votes)
- Can someone simply explain the main difference between the anterior and posterior pituitary glands?(3 votes)
- 1. hormones originating in the hypothalmic neurons, pass through axons and are released from their nerve endings. these hormones reach the pituitary gland through a portal circulatory system and regulate the function of anterior pituitary .hence, its is regulated via portal vessels from hypothalamus .on the other hand posterior pituitary gland is regulated via axonal projection from hypothalamus( no need of portal circulatory system)
2. The posterior pituitary is a projection of the hypothalamus. It does not produce its own hormones, but only stores and releases the hormones created by the hypothalamus, whereas the anterior pituitary produces and secretes its own hormones.(4 votes)
- Is the pituitary gland actually a brain structure? For example, is it labeled as a structure in the forebrain?(3 votes)
- Yes, the posterior portion of the pituitary gland is part of the diencephalon, which is a part of the forebrain. Pretend you're holding a human brain in your hands the same way you would a hamburger, with the anterior (front) part of the brain near your index finger and thumb and facing you, and the posterior (back) part of the brain closer to your pinky finger and facing away from you. If you flip that ham-brain-burger over to see what's underneath it, you would see the pituitary gland. It's actually quite distinguishable from other structures in the brain! It is located on the ventral (underneath) portion of the brain and hangs from a thin stalk called the infundibulum.(4 votes)
- Hello,
What is the term for a hormone that influences the activity of a specific gland?
Thanks!(3 votes)- A hormone that triggers the release of another hormone is called a tropic hormone(4 votes)
Video transcript
OK, so today what I want to
talk about is endocrine control. And in order to talk
about endocrine control, I need to talk about
two major glands. First, the
hypothalamus-- I'm going to draw that in here-- and
then in this enlarged image right here, this is
just a blown-up view of the hypothalamus. And then the next major
gland that we need is the pituitary gland. And the pituitary
gland is the gland that dangles right
below the hypothalamus. And you can see that
the hypothalamus is a structure right
here in the forebrain and the pituitary
dangles right beneath it. And as a member of the
brain, the hypothalamus receives neural
signals from the brain and from the peripheral
nervous system, and it funnels those signals
to the pituitary gland, which ultimately controls the other
endocrine glands and our body's hormonal response
to the environment. And there are two different
parts to the pituitary gland. You have the anterior
pituitary gland, and then you have the
posterior pituitary gland. And the hypothalamus interacts
with the anterior and posterior part in two different ways. And so it interacts with the
anterior pituitary gland, primarily through the
hypophyseal portal system which, I've kind
of drawn in here. And the hypophyseal
portal system is a capillary system,
so little blood vessels that flow between
the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. And the hypothalamus
secretes hormones into this little
system, and they go down and they signal the
pituitary gland, and so that would be an
example of a paracrine signal, or a really
regionally-acting signal. And so one example of
the hypothalamus hormones that signal the
pituitary gland is gonadotropin-releasing
hormone, or GnRH. And gonadotropin-releasing
hormone is going to go down to
the anterior pituitary, and it's going to
stimulate the release of follicle-stimulating hormone
and luteinizing hormone-- so FSH and LH. And these hormones are
going to travel down to the gonads-- in
the male, the testes, and in the female, the
ovaries-- and they're going to stimulate the gonads
to release their hormones. Another example of how
the hypothalamus controls the pituitary gland,
which ultimately controls the endocrine glands, is
corticotropin-releasing hormone. And corticotropin-releasing
hormone stimulates the anterior
pituitary's release of adrenocorticotropic
hormone-- ACTH. Adrenocorticotropic hormone
goes down to the adrenal glands, and it stimulates the
adrenal gland's release of its hormones. And so moving along,
the hypothalamus also releases thyroid-releasing
hormone, or TRH. And thyroid-releasing
hormone goes down to the anterior
pituitary, and it stimulates the anterior
pituitary's release of thyroid-stimulating
hormone, TSH. And thyroid-stimulating
hormone goes down, and it stimulates the thyroid
gland to release its hormones, thyroxine and triiodothyronine. And so continuing
in that list, you have growth-hormone-releasing
hormone. And growth-hormone-releasing
hormone is the hypothalamus's signal
to the pituitary gland to release its hormone,
growth hormone. And growth hormone goes to the
long bones and the big muscles in our body, and it
stimulates growth. And then last but
not least, we have prolactin inhibitory
factor, PIF. And prolactin inhibitory factor
is a little bit different, because it's constantly
being released. And when it stops
being released, that's when the pituitary
gland is signaled to release prolactin,
and prolactin is a hormone involved in
milk production in moms. And so some of the
anterior pituitary hormones go down and directly stimulate
other endocrine glands, like FSH and LH, but
some of the anterior pituitary glands directly
affect parts of the body, like growth hormone
and prolactin. And so there's a nice
mnemonic, FLAT PEG, which helps me remember
which one's which. Because FSH, LH, ACTH, and
TSH, or the FLAT hormones, are called tropic hormones. Let me get a different
color for this. And the tropic
hormones are hormones that stimulate other
endocrine glands. PEG hormones are
the direct hormones, and they include prolactin
and growth hormone. And the E is for
endorphins, which I haven't included in this list
because the anterior pituitary does release
endorphins, but so do a lot of other
parts of the body. So E is for endorphins,
but the PEG hormones are direct hormones. And direct hormones stimulate
a part of the body directly. So growth hormone directly
stimulates the bones and the muscles, and prolactin
directly stimulates lactation. And so the hypothalamus signals
the anterior pituitary's release of its hormones through
the hypophyseal portal system, or this little capillary bed. And then the hypothalamus also
communicates with the posterior pituitary, and it does
that through stimulation of nerves which run down that
pituitary stalk right here. And the hypothalamus
sends a signal down those nerves to the
posterior pituitary and causes the
posterior pituitary to release a couple
hormones, too. And I want to make a point,
because the posterior pituitary releases these hormones,
but they're actually made in the
hypothalamus and stored in the posterior pituitary. And the two major hormones
are ADH and oxytocin. And ADH is antidiuretic hormone. It stimulates the collecting
ducts in the kidneys to retain water. And oxytocin is a
hormone involved in uterine
contractions in women. And so you see that a lot of the
endocrine control in the body ultimately comes back to the
pituitary gland, which is then controlled by the
hypothalamus, which forms the bridge between
the nervous system and the endocrine system. And so as big as the
names of the hormones get, the idea behind them
is pretty manageable. It's really just one part
of the body stimulating another part of the body
through chemical messages.