Pharmacology 3620 Lecture Notes - Lecture 38: Estrogen Receptor, Pamidronic Acid, Raloxifene

• School: Western University
• Department: Pharmacology
• Course: Pharmacology 3620
• Professor: Rommel Tirona

Document Summary

Corticotropin releasing hormone (crh) acts on cells of the anterior pituitary leading to production of acth: acth acts on adrenal glands to stimulate many steroid hormones. In response to a stimulus (e. g. stress), hypothalamus releases crh. Crh binds receptors on the surface of endocrine cells of the anterior pituitary (peptide hormone) Crh induces the synthesis of proopiomelanocortin (pomc) by the anterior pituitary. Proopiomelanocortin is post-translationally processed to adrenocorticotropic hormone (acth), among other biologically active peptides: acth is released into bloodstream and binds receptors on the surface of endocrine cells of the adrenal cortex. The adrenal cortex secretes the steroid hormones, aldosterone, cortisol, and androgens, from three distinct layers. Cortisol is a negative feedback inhibitor of crh and acth secretion (i. e. shuts down hpa axis) The adrenal cortex secretes corticosterone, aldosterone, cortisol, androstenedione, and dehydroepiandrosterone: rate-limiting step is conversion of cholesterol to pregnenolone (cyp11a, glucocorticoids regulate glucose metabolism, mineralocorticoids regulate salt balance through kidneys by handling na+ and k+