what happens to the growth hormone after it has bonded to the receptor and the job has been done?
Posted on | November 30, 2009 |
after the growth hormone bonds to the receptor and the message is sent to the inside of the cell to increase growth or metabolism what happens to the growth hormone? is it broken down by an enzyme? if yes what enzyme?
Category: Growth Hormone Questions
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One Response to “what happens to the growth hormone after it has bonded to the receptor and the job has been done?”
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November 30th, 2009 @ 7:08 pm
This is a good question which I have never been told the answer to but I will give you my conjecture. However, I will say that they are defiantly degraded or at least deactivated with the help of an enzyme (everything does)
There are 3 main classes of hormones amino acid (usually just 1 modified amino acid), protein, and steroid.
Protein hormones are likely degraded by various proteases in the body. Where they are located I really don’t know, possibly the liver.
Steroid hormones are not polymers so they must be covalently modified to be degraded. This is done in the ER of cells since steroid hormones can cross lipid membranes, mainly by the enzyme cytochrome P450 oxidase which is found in the liver.
Amino acid hormones are also not polymers so they also probably have to be covalently modified to be degraded. I’m not sure of the pathway but it might be the same that is used to extract energy from amino acids.
I hope this helps a little, I am no endocrinologist.