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exocrine gland

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exocrine gland

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Also known as exocrine glands

gland that produces and secretes substances onto an epithelial surface by a duct

Key facts

Latin
glandula exocrina
Mesh
D005088
Th
H2.00.02.0.03014

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Show 3 more facts
topic's main category
Category:Exocrine glands
opposite of
endocrine gland
NCI Thesaurus ID
C12712
Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~3 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Exocrine glands are glands that secrete substances onto an epithelial surface by way of a duct. Examples of exocrine glands include sweat, salivary, mammary, ceruminous, lacrimal, sebaceous, prostate and mucous glands. 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 merocrine and apocrine types.

Classification

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “exocrine gland” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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