Body and drug basics
Pituitary gland
Last updated
The pituitary is a pea-sized gland hanging just underneath the brain that tells several other glands what to do by releasing hormones into the blood. It acts on instructions from the hypothalamus directly above it, so it is a relay station rather than where the decision is made. Growth hormone is one of the things it releases, and it releases it in bursts rather than steadily.
Why it matters here
Several groups of compounds here are described in terms of acting on or through the pituitary, which is a step in a chain rather than an effect in itself. Its habit of releasing in pulses is the reason timing comes up at all in records covering this area.
What it is not
Not the hypothalamus, the piece of brain immediately above it that issues the instructions. Calling the pituitary the master gland is common and misleading, since the pituitary is itself taking orders from upstream.
Also called
- pituitary
- pituitary gland
- hypophysis
- anterior pituitary
- posterior pituitary
- master gland
Its medical name is the hypophysis. It is usually described in two halves, anterior and posterior, which release different hormones.
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.