HORMONES
HORMONES
HORMONES
The living body possesses a remarkable communication system to coordinate its biological functions.
This is achieved by two distinctly organized functional systems.
• The nervous system coordinates the body functions through the transmission of electrochemical
impulses.
• The endocrine system acts through a wide range of chemical messengers known as hormones.
Hormones are the chemical messengers of the body having diverse structures and functions. They act
either directly or through messengers to coordinate and perform biological functions such as growth,
reproduction and digestion etc.
❖ Hormones are defined as organic substances, produced in small amounts by specific tissues
(endocrine glands), secreted into the blood stream to control the metabolic and biological
activities in the target cells.
❖ Hormones may be regarded as the chemical messengers involved in the transmission of
information from one tissue to another and from cell to cell.
❖ The word hormone is of Greek origin, which means “to arouse to activity
some hormones can act on the adjacent cells in a given tissue (paracrine function) as well as on the cells
in which they are synthesized (autocrine function). Examples: interleukin-2 is autocrine hormone for it
is being produced by T cells and stimulates proliferation of T cells; and prostaglandins have paracrine
function since they act on nearby cells.
1. Lipid hormones: Most lipid hormones are derived from cholesterol, such as adrenocortical
hormones, sex hormones and calcitriol. Others are derived from arachidonic acid, such as
prostaglandins. The cholesterol-derived hormones contain a steroid nucleus and are lipophilic
in nature; they readily traverse the cell membrane of their target cells and interact with the
cytoplasmic receptors.
2. Amino acid hormones: These hormones are produced by enzymatic modification of an amino
acid molecule. For example, both epinephrine and thyroxine are derived from tyrosine
molecule.
3. Peptide and protein hormones: These hormones are made up of amino acids, joined by
peptide bonds. Smallest of them is thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH), a hypothalamic-
releasing factor, which consists of only three amino acids. Other examples include antidiuretic
hormone (9 amino acids), glucagon (29 amino acids), parathormone (84 amino acids), and
growth hormone (191 amino acids).
4. Glycoprotein hormones: A glycoprotein hormone consists of peptide chain to which
carbohydrate moieties are covalently attached. The latter are necessary for the biological
activity of these hormones. Examples include pituitary hormones (TSH, LH and FSH), and
chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) of placental origin.
Biosynthesis
Biosynthetic mechanisms for hormones are diverse. Some hormones are initially synthesized as large
precursor proteins which are converted to the biologically active forms by removal of specific peptide
sequences. Insulin, for example, is initially synthesized as an inactive precursor, pre-pro-insulin. A
sequential removal of two peptide sequences results in production of an insulin molecule. Likewise,
parathormone (PTH) is formed from precursor, pre-pro-parathormone by successive removal of two
peptide segments. thyroxine, a single amino acid hormone, which is processed from a 115 amino acid
glycoprotein precursor, thyroglobulin.
Transport
The peptide hormones circulate in the blood in free form, unbound to any transport protein. This is due
to their hydrophilic nature. In contrast, the steroid hormones and the thyroid hormones are
predominantly hydrophobic in nature and therefore, cannot circulate in blood entirely in an unbound
form. They are mostly transported to their site of action by carrier proteins
Hormone Receptors
Receptors are cell-associated recognition molecules that play a crucial role in the hormone action.
❖ The receptors for water-soluble hormones (peptides, proteins, or glycoproteins) are present on
the cell surface. Interaction of hormones with receptors stimulates certain molecules namely
second messengers, which mediate biochemical functions intracellularly.
❖ The receptors for lipophilic hormones such as the steroids and the thyroid hormones are located
intracellularly.
The lipophilic hormones readily traverse the cell membrane because of their hydrophobic nature and
enter the cell. Intracellularly, they interact with specific receptors located either in the cytosol (e.g.
steroid hormones) or within the nucleus (e.g. thyroid hormones) to form hormone-receptor complexes.
The latter serves as the intracellular messengers, through which biochemical functions are mediated.
Thousands of receptor molecules may be present in a single cell.