Template:Short description Template:Infobox anatomy

Exocrine glands are glands that secrete substances onto an epithelial surface by way of a duct.<ref name="wheater">Template:Cite book</ref> Examples of exocrine glands include sweat, salivary, mammary, ceruminous, lacrimal, sebaceous, prostate and mucous. Exocrine glands are one of two types of glands in the human body, the other being endocrine glands, which secrete their products directly into the bloodstream. The liver and pancreas are both exocrine and endocrine glands; they are exocrine glands because they secrete products—bile and pancreatic juice—into the gastrointestinal tract through a series of ducts, and endocrine because they secrete other substances directly into the bloodstream. Exocrine sweat glands are part of the integumentary system; they have eccrine and apocrine types.

ClassificationEdit

StructureEdit

Exocrine glands contain a glandular portion and a duct portion, the structures of which can be used to classify the gland.<ref name="wheater">Template:Cite book</ref>

  • The duct portion may be branched (called compound) or unbranched (called simple).
  • The glandular portion may be tubular or acinar, or may be a mix of the two (called tubuloacinar). If the glandular portion branches, then the gland is called a branched gland.

Method of secretionEdit

Depending on how their products are secreted, exocrine glands are categorized as merocrine, apocrine, or holocrine.<ref name="wheater" />

  • Merocrine – the cells of the gland excrete their substances by exocytosis into a duct; for example, pancreatic acinar cells, eccrine sweat glands{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B=

Template:Fix }}, salivary glands, goblet cells, intestinal glands, tear glands, etc.

Product secretedEdit

Additional imagesEdit

See alsoEdit

Template:Portal

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Epithelium and epithelial tissue Template:Authority control