There is much confusion when it comes to understanding the actual mechanics behind the Androgen receptor gene (AR) and exactly what their relationship is to androgens. This is a simplified explanation of what happens when you introduce androgen hormones into your system and how your body processes them. Let’s start with the following definitions:
- A receptor is a protein molecule usually found inside or on the surface of a cell that receives chemical signals from outside the cell
- Androgen receptor gene (AR) provides instructions for making a protein called an androgen receptor and allows the body to respond appropriately to hormones. The receptors are present in many of the body's tissues, where they attach (bind) to androgens.
- Androgens are hormones, like testosterone, that are responsible for sexual development before birth and during puberty.
- Up-regulation An increase of a cellular component (Or activity).
- Down-regulation is the process by which a cell decreases the quantity of a cellular component ( Or activity)
Androgen receptors are protein molecules that are part of a cell and receive chemical signals from outside the cell via the process of binding. The receptors are present in many of the body's tissues, where they attach (bind) to androgens. The chemical signal would be in the form of testosterone or other androgenic/anabolic derivatives of testosterone and this binding process activates the receptor. When these types of chemicals bind to a receptor, the cell responds by activating several other genes that cause muscle growth. So in summary of the above definitions a receptor binds to testosterone or a androgenic/anabolic derivative thus activation the receptor rendering it active. Once active, it signals other genes that cause muscle growth to occur through increased synthesis of specific protein levels in cells. The technical read can be found here. Now let’s look at this from a more understandable point of view.
Ever hear of the term “Busy Bee”? Sure you have and a bee colony is a perfect example of how receptors function. There are three members that make up a bee hive community.
- The Queen BEE - She is the boss and her job is to reproduce and make more bees. It’s a woman’s world in the Bee hive community.
- The DRONE BEE – His sole purpose of existence is to hook up with the Queen for reproduction. After that, the poor fellow dies off, hope it was good.
- The WORKER BEE – This bee is responsible for gathering nectar and bringing it back to the hive only to transfer it to other worker bees that process and store it in the hive segments. The hive worker bees we shall call “In-House Bees”.
The Process
- The worker bee goes out and gathers nectar form flowers, fills his stomach, and returns back to the hive to make a deposit. This process we shall call the introduction or INJECTION of steroids.
- Once back to the hive, the worker passes off the nectar to another worker bee that then “processes” it and stores it into a segment of the honeycomb. This process we shall call the binding.
- After the nectar is processed by the in-house worker bee, it is then placed into segments of the honeycomb where the process of Up-regulation or activation occurs. These results increase synthesis of messenger RNA, which signals ribosomes to produce specific proteins. Translation = BUILD MORE MUSCLE.
When you inject testosterone or it’s androgenic/anabolic derivative, it is similar to having worker bees enter the hive. They are very busy bees and on a mission to drop their load of nectar and get back to work. This all works out fine as long as the In-house bees are available to offload the nectar for them. This is considered a happy hive and in terms of androgen reception it is called Up-regulation or activation as described above. A problem arises when there are not enough in-house worker bees to offload the incoming deliveries of nectar. For example, if the hive was to suddenly get swarmed by all the worker bees and their loads, there wouldn’t bee enough in-house bees to effectively offload them and send them back out for more. The delivery bees would have to stand-by and wait on line before they can begin their transfer process. This is in reference to long cycle peroids or not enough time between cycles where receptors do not have enough time to "Clear" and is what occurs when androgen receptors become “Saturated” and is referred to as Down-regulating. Now I use the term “Saturated” loosely since this is very much the topic of debate. Are the receptors actually saturated to the point where they cannot process any more of the steroid ? Or are they just overworked due to the increased work load, meaning more compounds/nectar then can be effectively processed ? That shall remain up for debate but the common dominator here is the decrease in binding of the receptors.
Time off is mandatory in the “Receptor Clearing Process”. Jumping back on a cycle without proper time off not only snubs your recovery but will not allow your receptors to clear. Speeding up your metabolic rate will speed up receptor clearing, it’s like hiring more in-house bees to help offload the incoming nectar so take the time to recover and let those receptors clear.
