The concept of hormone resistance has been recognized for many years. One of the first and most dramatic examples of this phenomenon is resistance to testosterone. This condition has been observed in animals as well as humans. There are a variety of reasons that testosterone does not have its normal virilizing effect, but the basic concept is that these individuals lack the cell receptor for testosterone. A number of receptor disorders exist and understanding the concept of receptors is critical to understanding these conditions and also for understanding insulin resistance.
Hormones exert their effects on cells by binding to specific cell receptors.
These receptors can be located on the surface of the target cell, inside of the cell in the cytoplasm, or in the nucleus of the cell. There are a number of abnormalities which can render the receptor completely or partially inactive. The cell receptor for insulin is on the surfact of the cell in the plasma membrane. This very nice diagram shows different types of cell surface receptors. The diagram is from a Hypertextbook at Colorado State University .