What does apocrine glands mean in medical terms?
Definition of apocrine gland : a gland and especially a sweat gland that secretes a viscous fluid into a hair follicle (as in the armpit or groin), is lined with a single layer of usually columnar cells, and typically does not become active until puberty.
What are apocrine glands also called?
Print. Your skin has two types of sweat glands: eccrine and apocrine. Eccrine glands occur over most of your body and open directly onto the surface of your skin. Apocrine glands open into the hair follicle, leading to the surface of the skin.
What is the medical term for sweat gland?
Listen to pronunciation. (EK-rin …) A type of simple sweat gland that is found in almost all regions of the skin. These glands produce sweat that reaches the surface of the skin by way of coiled ducts (tubes).
What is apocrine sweat gland in anatomy?
Apocrine sweat glands, also referred to as odoriferous sweat glands, are known for producing malodorous perspiration. They are large, branched glands, mostly confined to the axillary and perineal regions, including the perianal region, labia majora in women, and the scrotum and prepuce in men.
What is an apocrine gland quizlet?
Apocrine Glands. Exocrine glands that have cytoplasm in their secretions. Cutaneous. relating to or existing on or affecting the skin. Dermis.
What is another name of sebaceous glands?
Sebaceous glands are the oil secreting glands of your body. This is why they are also called the oil glands. They are a type of holocrine simple saccular (alveolar) gland. Their function is to secrete a substance called sebum, a mixture of fatty substances, entire sebum-producing cells, and epithelial cell debris.
Why are apocrine glands important?
The secretions of sebaceous and apocrine glands fulfil an important thermoregulatory role in cold-stressed and heat-stressed hunter—gatherers. In hot conditions the secretions emulsify eccrine sweat and thus encourage the formation of a sweat sheet and discourage the formation and loss of sweat drops from the skin.
What is the difference between apocrine and eccrine glands?
There are two types of sweat glands present in the skin layer; one kind are the apocrine sweat glands which secrete fluid into the sac of hair follicle through which it eventually comes out on the skin. The other kind is the eccrine sweat gland which secretes sweat directly onto the surface of the skin.
What is apocrine function?
Apocrine glands produce viscous, lipid-rich sweat, which is also comprised of proteins, sugars, and ammonia [21,23]. The function of apocrine glands in many species is generally regarded as scent glands involved in production of pheromones (body odor), although this social/sexual function is rudimentary in humans.
Where is apocrine gland?
Apocrine glands in the skin and eyelid are sweat glands. Most apocrine glands in the skin are in the armpits, the groin, and the area around the nipples of the breast. Apocrine glands in the skin are scent glands, and their secretions usually have an odor.
What are the sebaceous gland disorders?
Several medical conditions are related with sebaceous gland pathology, such as acne, sebaceous hyperplasia, sebaceous adenoma and sebaceous carcinoma. Acne is a common, complex, chronic disorder of the human pilosebaceous unit that mostly occurs in adolescence and young adulthood.
What hormone controls sweating?
Increased adrenaline stimulates the apocrine glands for sweating. The hormone epinephrine can cause both vasoconstriction and vasodilation.
What is the function of apocrine glands?
perspiration secretion The apocrine sweat glands, associated with the presence of hair in human beings (as on the scalp, the armpit, and the genital region), continuously secrete a concentrated fatty sweat into the gland tube. Emotional stress stimulates contraction of the gland, expelling its contents.
What causes apocrine sweat?
When your body temperature rises, these glands release fluids that cool your body as they evaporate. Apocrine glands are found in areas where you have hair, such as your armpits and groin. These glands release a milky fluid when you’re stressed. This fluid is odorless until it combines with bacteria on your skin.
What is the function of apocrine?
Why do we have apocrine glands?
What are 3 Disorders of the sebaceous glands?
Severe acne variants. Ectopic sebaceous glands. Sebaceous gland hyperplasia, adenoma and carcinoma. ‘Sebaceous’ (epidermoid) cysts and steatocystoma multiplex.