Metabolism of Androgenic Steroids in Human Skin

Abstract

In our view, the endocrine system is a system of five centres (Fig. 1). In the “heroic age” of endocrinology, the endocrine system was presumed to consist of endocrine glands directed by the anterior pituitary as a “mastergland”. Cawadias (1947) deserves credit for having referred to the importance of the hypothalamus in controlling endocrine functions. He was blaming the foregoing conception for having beheaded the endocrine system between hypothalamus and anterior pituitary. He has made, essentially, the same mistake for which the previous conception had been blamed, only he denoted the endocrine system one level higher, above the hypothalamus. It is quite unnecessary just at this Congress to emphasize that the endocrine system is controlled through the suprahypo-thalamic pathways including neocortical association areas. Moreover, the regulation does not terminate at the level of the peripheral endocrine glands but includes actions at the cellular level of the target organs. I call the latter the periphery in a strict sense of the endocrine system.