Steroid-cell interactions

How steroids attach to molecules inside mammalian cells is the subject here, and the author extends the discussion to steroid-like compounds. Attention also goes to the proteins that carry steroids in blood serum, to the reactions between steroids and immunoglobulins, and to how each of these binding processes relates to what the steroid actually does in the body.

The book's ten chapters open with a basic explanation of the forces that govern how a steroid hormone interacts with another molecule. They then survey three approaches researchers use to examine these interactions: separating cells into fractions, autoradiography, and distinguishing steroids bound specifically from those bound nonspecifically. Later chapters follow how the body breaks down steroid hormones, using testosterone and progesterone as the main examples, and how that breakdown ties into binding and mode of action. Androgens, glucocorticoids, mineralocorticoids and estrogens each receive treatment in terms of their intracellular binding and how it corresponds to biological effect. The final chapter looks at clinical and immunological findings on steroid binding to proteins.

The text is aimed at students and working professionals in biology, biochemistry and physiology.