• Question: What are hormones made out of?

    Asked by Sixsixman to Amy, Craig, Laura, Partha, Saffron on 17 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by HugoBOSS.
    • Photo: Laura Wales

      Laura Wales answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      Most hormones are made of protein and are called peptides. Peptides are short chains of amino acids; most hormones are peptides.

    • Photo: Saffron Whitehead

      Saffron Whitehead answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      I’ll just add to Laura’s comment which is absolutely correct. Another group of potent hormones are the steroid hormones such as testosterone, oestradiol, the stress hormone cortisol and aldosterone which controls the amount of salt we exrete. All steroid hormones are made from cholesterol. The third major group of hormones are made from a single amino acid (not strings of amino aids as in peptides and proteins) and these hormones include catecholamines such as adrenaline and the thyroid hormones

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