Prohormone
A hormone precursor is referred to as a prohormone which itself has no or hardly any hormonal effect, but must first be converted into a hormone in the metabolism . Such activations are often regulated in many ways, whereby the hormonal effect is dosed for the current physical needs of the metabolism.
Examples
- The prohormone cholecalciferol (vitamin D 3 ) as a precursor of the hormone calcitriol .
literature
- Jeremy M. Berg, John L. Tymoczko, Lubert Stryer : Biochemistry. 6 edition, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg 2007. ISBN 978-3-8274-1800-5 .
- Donald Voet, Judith G. Voet: Biochemistry. 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York 2004. ISBN 0-471-19350-X .
- Bruce Alberts , Alexander Johnson, Peter Walter, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts: Molecular Biology of the Cell , 5th Edition, Taylor & Francis 2007, ISBN 978-0815341062 .