At puberty, an adolescent female body changes in both structure and function of several organ systems, primarily under the influence of changing concentrations of estrogens and other steroid hormones. How can one hormone, such as estrogen, mediate so many effects?
A)Estrogen is produced in very large concentration and therefore diffuses widely.
B)Estrogen has specific receptors inside several cell types, but each cell responds in the same way to its binding.
C)Estrogen is kept away from the surface of any cells not able to bind it at the surface.
D)Estrogen binds to specific receptors inside many kinds of cells, each of which have different responses to its binding.
E)Estrogen has different shaped receptors for each of several cell types.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Estrogen binds to specific receptors inside many kinds of cells, each of which has a different response to its binding. This is how estrogen can mediate numerous effects throughout the body despite being a single hormone. The specific response of each cell depends on the presence of different co-regulators within that specific cell type. Thus, estrogen can act on different cell types and generate different downstream signals.

At Puberty, an Adolescent Female Body Changes in Both Structure