Steroids

This article is about the chemical family of steroids in general. For discussion of performance-enhancing steroids and their effects, please see Anabolic steroid. A steroid is a lipid characterized by a carbon skeleton with four fused rings. All steroids are derived from the acetyl CoA biosynthetic pathway. Different steroids vary in the functional groups attached to these rings. Hundreds of distinct steroids have been identified in plants, animals, and fungi. Their most important role i ...