The Mammalian Endocrine System Explain how antagonistic hormone pairs work to ma

Question

The Mammalian Endocrine System

Explain how antagonistic hormone pairs work to maintain homeostasis. Describe an example of an antagonistic hormone pair and explain in detail how it works. How is this type of function an example of negative feedback?

The antagonistic hormone pairs

Explain the functions and interactions of the hypothalamus, anterior pituitary, posterior pituitary and endocrine glands. How is this related to negative feedback?

What are releasing and stimulating (tropic) hormones? What do they do? Give specific examples.

Describe some of the effects of a non-functional pituitary gland. How can these effects be corrected?

Explanation / Answer

An example of antagonistic hormone pairs working to maintain homeostasis is insulin and glucagon. After eating, when the blood glucose rises, insulin is secreted by beta cells of the pancreas, which makes the liver and other body cells to absorb glucose and store it in the form of glycogen. Alpha cells of the pancreas, releases glucagon which makes the liver to release the stored glycogen into glucose. The release of one hormone prevents the release of other, therefore it is an example of negative feedback mechanism.

Pituitary gland is a master gland which controls the functions of other endocrine glands. The hypothalamus sends signals to pituitary gland to increase or decrease its activity. As pituitary gland has two lobes namely anterior and posterior, the regulation of the hypothalamus on both the lobes are different and functions as negative feedback mechanism.

Tropic hormones are released from the anterior pituitary gland which included thyroid stimulating hormone and adrenocorticotropic hormone.

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