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Merocrine is the most common manner of secretion. The gland releases its product and no part of the gland is lost or damaged (compare holocrine and apocrine). The term eccrine is specifically used to designate merocrine secretions from sweat glands (eccrine sweat glands), [1] although the term merocrine is often used interchangeably. [2] [3]
Apocrine sweat glands are most active in times of stress and sexual excitement. [35] In mammals (including humans), apocrine sweat contains pheromone-like compounds to attract other organisms within their species. Study of human sweat has revealed differences between men and women in apocrine secretions and bacteria. [36]
An apocrine sweat gland (/ ˈ æ p ə k r ə n,-ˌ k r aɪ n,-ˌ k r iː n /; from Greek apo 'away' and krinein 'to separate') [5] [6] is composed of a coiled secretory portion located at the junction of the dermis and subcutaneous fat, from which a straight portion inserts and secretes into the infundibular portion of the hair follicle. [7]
Merocrine – the cells of the gland excrete their substances by exocytosis into a duct; for example, pancreatic acinar cells, eccrine sweat glands [dubious – discuss], salivary glands, goblet cells, intestinal glands, tear glands, etc. Apocrine – the apical portion of the cytoplasm in the cell membrane, which contains the excretion, buds off.
The secretion of eccrine glands is a sterile, dilute electrolyte solution with primary components of bicarbonate, potassium, and sodium chloride (NaCl), [6] and other minor components that may include glucose, pyruvate, lactate, cytokines, immunoglobulins, antimicrobial peptides such as dermcidin, and many others.
Merocrine glands – cells secrete their substances by exocytosis. (e.g. mucous and serous glands; also called "eccrine", e.g. major sweat glands of humans, goblet cells, salivary gland, tear gland and intestinal glands) Apocrine glands – a portion of the secreting cell's body is lost during secretion.
Apocrine sweat glands are restricted to the armpits and a few other areas of the body and produce an odorless, oily, opaque secretion which then gains its characteristic odor from bacterial decomposition. In humans, sweating is primarily a means of thermoregulation, which is achieved by the water-rich secretion of the eccrine glands. Maximum ...
Holocrine gland secretion is the most damaging (to the cell itself and not to the host which begot the cell) type of secretion, with merocrine secretion being the least damaging and apocrine secretion falling in between. Examples of holocrine glands include the sebaceous glands of the skin [2] [3] and the meibomian glands of the eyelid.