Release of its neurotransmitter is controlled by specific hypothalamic regulatory factors. Its transmitter is packaged in dense-core vesicles. Its secretory neurons are equivalent to post-ganglionic sympathetic neurons. On stimulation, the gland releases epinephrine and norepinephrine. Progenitor cells for all cell types of the gastric gland are located at the base of the gastric gland.
Chief cells store their secretory product intracellularly as inactive zymogen granules.
Chief cells are found predominantly in the basal third of the gastric gland. Columnar epithelial cells in the upper third of the gastric gland secrete a protective mucus. Chief cells contain abundant rough endoplasmic reticulum in their basal cytoplasm. Cryptorchidism is a condition in which the testes fail to descend. Colonic columnar absorptive enterocytes remove water from the gut lumen by taking up salts apically, and pumping them into the spaces between adjacent enterocytes.