{"id":8763,"date":"2019-05-22T16:11:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/pituitary_gland\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T16:11:15","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:11:15","slug":"pituitary_gland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/pituitary_gland\/","title":{"rendered":"Pituitary gland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\" class=\"\">This gland, alsocalled the hypophysis, is a pea-sized endocrine gland (weighing about 0.5 gr. inhuman adult) situated in a bony hollow structure (sella turica) at the base ofthe brain (see figure below).&nbsp; It isreferred to as the \u2018master gland\u2019 as it exerts control over a number of otherhormone glands, including the adrenals, ovaries and testicles.&nbsp; It consists of three parts or lobes: theanterior pituitary&nbsp;(or adenohypophysis) that regulates several physiologicalprocesses (e.g., stress, growth, reproduction, lactation) the intermediate lobe&nbsp;thatsynthesizes and secretes melanocyte-stimulating hormones (responsible for theproduction and release of melanin), and the posterior pituitary&nbsp;(orneurohypophysis) functionally connected to the hypothalamus&nbsp;by thepituitary stalk.&nbsp; The gland itself iscontrolled in turn by the hypothalamus.&nbsp;Together they detect levels of hormones secreted by glands under thecontrol of the pituitary, thus determining how much stimulation these targetglands require.&nbsp; The pituitary glandappears early in gestation, with the adenohypophysisand shortly thereafter the neurohypophysis, both emerging from ectodermal tissue,that later fuse into each other while still remaining distinct structures.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Pitutitary-gland.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" class=\"\">\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\" class=\"\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"text-align: center;\">Location of the pituitary gland<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"text-align: left;\">See Adrenal glands, Arcuate nucleus, Corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH), Ectoderm, Estrogen, Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH), Growth hormone (or somatotropin), Hormones, Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis,&nbsp;Hypothalamus,&nbsp;Locus coeruleus (or ceruleus),&nbsp;Oxytocin, Pineal gland, Prolactin, Suckling<br \/>\n<\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This gland, alsocalled the hypophysis, is a pea-sized endocrine gland (weighing about 0.5 gr. inhuman adult) situated in a bony hollow structure (sella turica) at the base ofthe brain (see figure below).&nbsp; It isreferred to as the \u2018master gland\u2019 as it exerts control over a number of otherhormone glands, including the adrenals, ovaries and testicles.&nbsp; &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/pituitary_gland\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Pituitary gland&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-8763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-glossary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}