Question

Illustrate the difference between the mechanism of action of a protein and a steroid hormone.

Answer 1

Steroid and peptide hormones are two types of hormones in the animal body. Steroid hormones are made up of cholesterol while peptide hormones are made up of amino acids. The main difference between steroid hormones and peptide hormones is that steroid hormones bind to the cell surface receptors which then act as second messengers whereas peptide hormones directly bind to the DNA in the nucleus to modify the transcription. Testosterone and estrogen are examples of steroid hormones and antidiuretic hormone (ADH), and calcitonin are examples of peptide hormones