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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Steroids. 2010 Feb 13;75(7):467–476. doi: 10.1016/j.steroids.2010.02.004

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

Steroid biosynthesis. Cholesterol is the precursor of all steroids and is delivered into the inner mitochondrial membrane by STAR and TSPO where is cleaved into pregnenolone. Pregnenolone freely diffuses out of the mitochondria and is used for the biosysnthesis of testosterone and estradiol in gonads or cortisol and aldosterone in the adrenal glands.