• Question: What shape are hormones (if you can see them!)?

    Asked by lukethetieman to Derek, Elaine, Heather, Keith on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Heather Eyre

      Heather Eyre answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      They are predicted to be all kinds of shapes – it’s often their shape that is really important for how they activate their receptors and have their effects.

      The hormone I work with (UrotensinII – a weird one that we are still working out!) is kind of circular., but with a little tail.

      Testosterone and other sex hormones are based on a few hexagons and pentagons stuck together with other bits sticking off it all kind of directions.

      Insulin is kind of spherical when fully formed.

      So hormones are variable in shape!

    • Photo: Derek Ball

      Derek Ball answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      Dear Luke, hormones differ in shape and this is due to the molecules that make them. So depending on whether they contain sugars, peptides and phospholipids this influences their shape and whether they are soluble in plasma or whether require a carrier protein (such as albumin) in order to be transported around the body.

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