Mechanisms of steroid hormone action

Abstract

In principle, steroid hormones might act at any level along the pathway towards altered cellular function. However, recent, as yet unpublished, studies from the authors' laboratory have shown that by combining purified steroid hormone-receptor complexes with RNA polymerase, interphase chromosomes, and necessary substrates, it is possible to induce the synthesis of ovalbumin mRNA in vitro. This is the same result one obtains by administering progesterone in vivo and strongly suggests that steroid hormone receptors act directly on the cell's genetic apparatus to induce gene expression and initiate the sequence of events which lead to altered cell function.