AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Sweat glands are appendages of the integument. There are eccrine and apocrine sweat glands. They differ in embryology, distribution, and function. Eccrine sweat glands are simple, coiled, tubular glands present throughout the body, most numerously on the soles of the feet.

Detailed explanation-2: -Eccrine sweat glands occur over most of the body and open directly onto the skin’s surface. Apocrine glands open into the hair follicle, leading to the surface of the skin. Apocrine glands develop in areas with many hair follicles, such as on the scalp, armpits and groin.

Detailed explanation-3: -As soon as your body’s internal temperature starts rising, your hypothalamus (a small region in your brain) tells eccrine sweat glands distributed all over your body that it’s time to start cooling you down by producing sweat.

Detailed explanation-4: -Excretion: the skin is a site through which we can excrete urea and other wastes via the sweat (the skin is not as important as the kidneys in terms of excretion)

Detailed explanation-5: -In general, the main component of sweat is water, along with the excreta of electrolytes (NaCl [Na], potassium [K], trace elements) and non-electrolytes (uric acid, creatinine). The actions of the sweat glands are closely coordinated with those of kidney excretion.