sekretierte

Sekretierte is a German term used in scientific contexts to describe substances that have been secreted by cells or tissues. It corresponds to the English adjective secreted. In biology, a secreted substance is produced by a cell and released into the extracellular space, often into a duct, body fluid, or circulation. The term appears in physiology, biochemistry, and cell biology literature to distinguish secreted products from those that remain inside the cell or are simply excreted as waste.

Common examples of sekretierte substances include proteins such as digestive enzymes, hormones, mucus components, cytokines, and antibodies. Secreted molecules can act locally at the site of release (paracrine or autocrine signaling) or enter the bloodstream to elicit effects at distant targets (endocrine signaling). Changes in secretion are central to processes like digestion, immune responses, development, and metabolism.

Mechanistically, secretion usually follows the classical secretory pathway: synthesis in the rough endoplasmic reticulum, processing and sorting in the Golgi apparatus, and packaging into secretory vesicles that fuse with the plasma membrane to release their contents via exocytosis. Secretory activity can be constitutive (continuous) or regulated (triggered by specific stimuli). Specialized cells, such as pancreatic acinar cells, goblet cells in the intestinal lining, endocrine cells, and nerve terminals, illustrate the diversity of sekretierte products.

In modern usage, the term is most common in German-language texts. In English-language literature, the equivalent term is simply secreted, and discussions may reference the secretome as the full set of secreted proteins of a cell or tissue. Excretion, by contrast, denotes removal from the body and is not implied by secretion.