Endocrine gland
The adrenal glands are located above the kidneys in humans and in front of the kidneys in other animals. The adrenal glands produce a variety of hormones including adrenaline and the steroids aldosterone and cortisol. It controls the behaviour during crisis and emotional situations. It stimulates the heart and its conducting tissues and metabolic processes.
Adrenarche
An initiator of adrenarche has not yet been identified. Researchers have unsuccessfully tried to identify a new pituitary peptide, to be called "adrenal androgen stimulating hormone". Others have proposed that adrenarchal maturation is a gradual process intrinsic to the adrenal glands that has no distinct trigger. A third avenue of research is pursuing a possible relationship with either fetal or childhood body mass and related signals such as insulin and leptin. Many children born small for gestational age (SGA) because of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) have an earlier onset of adrenarche, which raises the possibility that timing of adrenarche may be affected by physiological programming in infancy. Adrenarche also occurs prematurely in many children who are overweight, suggesting a possible relationship with body mass or adiposity signals.