Steroid hormones affects cells by binding to intracellular receptor
complex that composed of a single polypeptide chains, which promote or inhibit
transcription of specific genes. The receptors for steroid hormones are located
inside the target cells specifically in the nucleus or cytoplasm, which bind to
regions of receptive genes.
Therefore, the function of steroid hormones is to control gene
expression in target cells by selectively affecting the transcription of a set
of genes. The proteins concentration of the target cells are altered, which
could result to the modification of the phenotype of cell.
