Overview of Endocrinology

List 3 factors that determine the concentration of a particular hormone in blood:

A protein hormone binds to a target cell and intracellular levels of free calcium or cyclic adenosine monophosphate rise in response. In this situation, calcium or cAMP is referred to as a _____.

Protein hormones bind to specific receptors that are located _____ of target cells

free in the cytoplasm
in the plasma membrane
in either the cytoplasm or nucleus
attached to DNA
in the nucleus

What is a hormone antagonist?

A cell that responds physiologically to a particular hormone is called a __________ for that hormone.

A hormone that is secreted by one cell, diffuses and acts on neighboring cells is said to act through a _____ route.

autocrine
apocrine
exocrine
paracrine
endocrine

Diethylstilbestrol is an estrogen agonist, which means that it:

binds to the estrogen receptor and induces the biological effects of other estrogens
binds to the estrogen receptor, but fails to cause a biological effect
binds to all hormone receptors except the estrogen receptor
does not interact with the estrogen receptor, but induces all other biological effects of estrogens

Steroid hormone receptors, with bound steroid, bind specifically to regions of DNA generically called _____. In the case of estrogen, this sequence of DNA would be called _____.

Can a given cell be a target for more than one hormone?

Consider the endocrine system depicted below, with three endocrine organs, each of which is also a target organ. Hormone C not only affects a variety of target organs, but inhibits secretion of hormone A. This kind of inhibitory control is referred to as:

Elevated concentrations of cyclic AMP within a cell are often associated with an increase in protein phosphorylation, because cyclic AMP activates _____.

ATPase
adenylate cyclase
phosphodiesterase
protein kinase C
protein kinase A

Which of the following is the most accurate description of a steroid hormone receptor?

a blood-borne protein that binds its steroid ligand, then binds to target cells
a protein inside the cell that binds hormone, then functions as an activated protein kinase
a mitochondrial protein that binds a steroid hormone and stimulates ATP production
an intracellular protein that has the ability to bind to specific sequences of DNA
a protein in the plasma membrane of the cell that is coupled to the enzyme adenylate cyclase