Apocrine sweat glands
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Apocrine sweat glands develop during the early to mid puberty ages approximately around the age of 15 and release more than normal amounts of sweat for approximately a month and subsequently regulate and release normal amounts of sweat after a certain period of time. They are located wherever there is body hair. [1]
These glands produce sweat that contains fatty materials. Mainly present in the armpits and around the genital area, their activity is the main cause of sweat odor, due to the bacteria that break down the organic compounds in the sweat.
Emotional stress increases the production of sweat from the apocrine glands, or more precisely: the sweat already present in the tubule is squeezed out. Apocrine sweat glands essentially serve as scent glands.
Note that the name apocrine sweat gland is archaic; these glands are no longer believed to secrete their products by an apocrine mechanism in which the apical portion of the cell is sloughed off with secretory products inside. Rather, the apocrine sweat glands secrete in an merocrine fashion: membrane-bound vesicles bind to the plasma membrane of secretory cells and release products by exocytosis with no net loss of the plasma membrane. These glands are still called apocrine sweat glands to distinguish them from the eccrine sweat glands.
[edit] External links
- Dictionary at eMedicine apocrine+sweat+glands
- GPnotebook 1630863417
- MeSH Apocrine+glands
- Anatomy Atlases - Microscopic Anatomy, plate 07.140 - "Axillary Sweat Gland"
- Histology at umdnj.edu
- For women, nothing's like the smell of men's sweat -- from Reuters (February 2007)
- Male sweat boosts women's hormone levels -- from UC Berkeley, February 2007
- The Effect of Male Sweat on Women's Hormone Levels -- from Science Daily, February 2007
