neuroendocrine

Pronunciation: nū′rō-en′dō-krin

Definition:

1. Pertaining to the anatomic and functional relationships between the nervous system and the endocrine apparatus.
2. Descriptive of cells that release a hormone into the circulating blood in response to a neural stimulus. Such cells may compose a peripheral endocrine gland (the insulin-secreting β cells of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas and the adrenaline-secreting chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla); others are neurons in the brain ( the neurons of the supraoptic nucleus that release antidiuretic hormone from their axon terminals in the posterior lobe of the hypophysis).

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