Endogeny, in biology, refers to the property of originating or developing from within an
organism
An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...
,
tissue, or
cell.
For example, ''endogenous substances'', and ''endogenous processes'' are those that originate within a living system (e.g. an
organism
An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...
or a
cell). For instance,
estradiol is an endogenous
estrogen
Estrogen (also spelled oestrogen in British English; see spelling differences) is a category of sex hormone responsible for the development and regulation of the female reproductive system and secondary sex characteristics. There are three ...
hormone
A hormone (from the Ancient Greek, Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of cell signaling, signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs or tissues by complex biological processes to regulate physio ...
produced within the body, whereas
ethinylestradiol is an exogenous synthetic estrogen, commonly used in
birth control pills.
In contrast, ''
exogenous substances'' and ''exogenous'' ''processes'' are those that originate from outside of an organism.
References
External links
*{{Wiktionary-inline, endogeny
Biology