Body and drug basics
Endogenous vs exogenous
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Endogenous means made inside the body. Exogenous means it came from outside. The same molecule can be either: a hormone the body produces is endogenous, and a chemically identical substance introduced from elsewhere is exogenous. The distinction is entirely about origin, not about chemistry.
Why it matters here
The body closely regulates what it makes itself, releasing it at particular times and in particular amounts, and something arriving from outside does not follow those rules. Records often describe a compound as a copy of something endogenous, which is a statement about the molecule and not about the timing.
What it is not
Endogenous does not mean natural in the marketing sense, and exogenous does not mean synthetic. A plant extract is exogenous, and a molecule the body makes for itself can be manufactured in a factory and still be the same molecule.
Also called
- endogenous
- exogenous
- endogenous vs exogenous
- exogenous vs endogenous
- endogenous and exogenous
- native
- naturally occurring
The body's own version is often described as native or naturally occurring, which is the same idea as endogenous.
Compounds carrying this term
None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.