Abstract
This chapter discusses the nonequilibrium facets of pulsatile sex-steroid secretion in the presence of plasma-binding proteins. Endocrine glands include protein and steroid hormone-producing tissues that signal their remote target tissues, by way of an intermittent, rather than continuous mode of hormone delivery into the bloodstream. Such a nonlinear burst-like mechanism of hormone release may convey important biological information to the responsive cells. The nonlinear and nonequilibrium features of endocrine axes are further confounded, by the presence in plasma, of one or more variable affinity and capacity binding proteins. Such transport proteins are capable of associating with the secreted hormone or ligand, with high or low affinity and at high or low capacity and modifying its metabolic clearance. Recent analyses of the kinetic impact of this binding protein on the pulsatile growth hormone (GH) axis have predicted a half-life of free GH in the absence of binding protein of only 2-7 min, whereas the half-lives of bound and total GH in the presence of the plasma high-affinity GH-binding protein are approximately threefold higher.
Published Version
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