In anatomy and physiology, a duct is a circumscribed channel leading from an exocrine gland or organ.

Types of ducts

Examples include:

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| Lactiferous duct 

|- 
| Cystic duct 

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| Common hepatic duct 

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| Common bile duct 

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| Pancreatic duct 

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| Ejaculatory duct 

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| Parotid duct 

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| Submaxillary duct 

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| Major sublingual duct 

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| Bartholin's ducts 

|-}

Duct system

As ducts travel from the acinus which generates the fluid to the target, the ducts become larger and the epithelium becomes thicker. The parts of the system are classified as follows:

|- 
| intralobular duct  

|- 
| interlobular duct 

|- 
| interlobar duct 

Some sources consider "lobar" ducts to be the same as "interlobar ducts", while others consider lobar ducts to be larger and more distal from the acinus. For sources that make the distinction, the interlobar ducts are more likely to classified with simple columnar epithelium (or pseudostratified epithelium), reserving the stratified columnar for the lobar ducts.

<gallery widths="200px"> Image:Gray1025.png|Section of submaxillary gland of kitten. Duct semidiagrammatic. X 200. Image:Gray1173.png|Section of portion of mamma. </gallery>

External links

• - "Exocrine gland (LM, Low)"
• Overview at uwa.edu.au
• Overview at siumed.edu

nl:Buis (anatomie)