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HORMONAL REGULATION: MORPHOGENETIC AND ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS
Author(s) -
CSABA G.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
biological reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.993
H-Index - 165
eISSN - 1469-185X
pISSN - 1464-7931
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-185x.1977.tb00835.x
Subject(s) - endocrinology , biology , medicine , hormone , endocrine gland , endocrine system , thyroid , microbiology and biotechnology
Summary 1. The endocrine glands of vertebrates develop from all three germ layers; those arising from ecto‐ and endoderm produce hormones of an amino‐acid or polypeptide‐type, while those arising from the mesoderm secrete hormones of a steroid nature. 2. All mesodermal glands and a single endodermal gland, the thyroid, are under hypophyseal control. 3. All pituitary‐controlled endocrine glands act upon morphogenetic processes after a certain stage of phylogenesis, and the same applies to the directly‐acting hypophyseal hormone STH. It follows that the pituitary acts not so much as the ‘conductor of endocrine glands’ in general, but as the central regulator of morphogenetic processes in particular. 4. Incorporation of the thyroid gland into the morphogenetic system took place at the phylogenetic level at which its morphogenetic role came to the fore in processes of metamorphosis. 5. The other main hormone system, the adaptive system, includes all endocrine glands of ecto‐ or endodermal origin. These account for short‐term homeostatic regulation and depend on the pineal body for higher control. 6. While hypophyseal regulation is stimulatory and is operated through a precise feed‐back mechanism, regulation by the pineal body is more primitive and inhibitory, with minimal indications of feed‐back. The influence becomes stimulatory only in those instances in which the target glands are controlling the same function in an opposite manner, e.g. the parathyroid and the C‐cell. The pineal influence also inhibits the function of the thyroid, and hypophyseal stimulation becomes superimposed on this inhibitory effect, in accordance with an actual requirement.