Chapter 11: Hormonal Control Systems
Revised 13 September 2011 for 12 Edition
Section A
What characteristic allow the heart, kidneys, liver, and stomach to be classified as endocrine glands?
Define hormone.
What features distinguish endocrine glands from exocrine glands?
What are the three chemical classes of hormones?
List the four amine hormones. Which of these are catecholamines?
Which endocrine glands secrete amine hormones?
Which gland is the major source of epinephrine?
How is it that secretory vesicles containing a peptide hormone may actually release more than one type
of hormone? (Hint: consider the biochemical pathways that lead to the formation of peptide hormones.)
What is the advantage of storing peptide hormones in intracellular vesicles?
What chemical structural characteristic is shared by all steroid hormones?
Which glands secrete steroids?
Why can’t steroid hormones be stored in membrane-bound vesicles?
Given that steroid hormones are not very water-soluble, how are steroid hormones carried in the blood?
Which of the adrenal cortical hormones is classified as a mineralocorticoid and why?
What is the major glucocorticoid hormone in humans?
Name the three hormones that are androgens and which of these are adrenal androgens?
Name the two hormones that are classified as estrogens?
What enzyme found in great abundance in ovaries is responsible for the conversion of androgens to
estrogens in women?
What determines the type of steroid hormone that a given cell produces since all cells have access to
cholesterol as a substrate for steroid hormone synthesis?
How are most peptide and amine hormones carried in the blood?
What are the two forms in which steroid hormones are found in the blood and in which of these form is
the majority of a steroid hormone transported?
What are the various fates of a hormone once it enters the bloodstream?
What prevents the accumulation of a hormone in the bloodstream?
Which organs play a major role in eliminating hormones?
What is responsible for the relatively short duration of action of catecholamine and peptide hormones?
Explain how it is that steroid and thyroid hormones remain in the blood much longer than catecholamine
and peptide hormones?
Since all hormones are delivered to all regions of the body, why doesn’t each cell respond to each and
every hormone?
What determines whether a cell can respond to a given hormone?
How is it possible for a single cell to respond to, say, five different hormones?
Which categories of hormones have receptors on the surfaces of their target cells?
Which categories of hormones have receptors inside their target cells?
What is up-regulation, and what conditions lead to this phenomenon?
What is down-regulation, and what conditions lead to this phenomenon?
The action of insulin depends on the permissive effects of cortisol. Use this example to explain the
“permissive” effect of a hormone.
How is it that the binding of a peptide or catecholamine hormone to its receptor on a target cell can have
such short latency, short-duration actions in the target cell?
By what route of action do steroid hormones tend to have delayed but long-lasting effects in their target
cells?
What are the general ways by which the secretion of a hormone is controlled from an endocrine cell?
What is a tropic hormone? Give an example.
What term is applied to a hormone that stimulates the growth of its target cells?
Section 11A.6 is especially relevant for our Endocrinology Case Studies Lab
What are the four general categories (types) of endocrine disorders? To which type does diabetes
mellitus Type 1 belong? What about Type 2 diabetes mellitus?
What is the difference between primary hyposecretion and secondary hyposecretion?
How can one distinguish primary and secondary hyposecretion with a blood test?
What distinguishes primary hypersecretion from secondary hypersecretion?
How can one distinguish primary and secondary hypersecretion with a blood test?
What are several strategies for correcting hypersecretion?