Epinephrine

Epinephrine (also adrenalin(e), epi in medical jargon) is a hormone and a neurotransmitter of the sympathetic nervous system. Both names mean the same: the Latin roots ad-+renes and the Greek roots epi-+nephros both literally mean "on/to the kidney" (referring to the adrenal gland, which secretes epinephrine).

Epinephrine plays a central role in the stress reaction[?], the physiological response to conditions that threaten the physical integrity of the body. It is secreted in the adrenal medulla, in the ganglia of the sympathetic nervous system, and by cerebral neurons. When released into the bloodstream, epinephrine acts to increase heart rate and blood pressure, dilate the pupils, elevate the blood sugar level (by increased hydrolysis of glycogen to glucose), and redistribute blood flow away from the skin and inner organs.

Epinephrine is used as a drug in order to stimulate cardiac action in cardiac arrest, as a vasoconstrictor in anaphylactic shock and sepsis, and as a bronchodilator in acute bronchial asthma. Allergy patients undergoing immunotherapy can get an epinephrine rinse before their allergan extract is administered. Adverse reactions include palpitations, tachycardia, anxiety, headache, tremor, hypertension, and acute pulmonary oedema.

A pheochromocytoma[?] is a tumor of the adrenal gland (or, rarely, the ganglia of the sympathetic nervous system) which secretes excessive amounts of catecholamines, usually epinephrine.

Chemically, epinephrine is a catecholamine hormone, a sympathomimetic monoamine derived from the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine. The chemical formula of Epinephrine is C₉H₁₃NO₃. Its structure is shown right.

The hormone was first extracted in 1901 by Jokichi Takamine and artificially synthesized in 1904 by Friedrich Stolz[?].