So steroid hormone receptors are in the cytoplasm or nucleus. Since they're hydrophobic, steroids can just diffuse right through the plasma membrane.
Since we only want the steroids to act on particular cells, which will have these receptors, does this mean that steroids just diffuse into all cells they come into contact with but only affect transcription of those that contain the proper receptors? This seems like a pretty unusually wasteful system to me, which is why I'm wondering if there's something I'm not getting. Thanks!
Since we only want the steroids to act on particular cells, which will have these receptors, does this mean that steroids just diffuse into all cells they come into contact with but only affect transcription of those that contain the proper receptors? This seems like a pretty unusually wasteful system to me, which is why I'm wondering if there's something I'm not getting. Thanks!
