STAR and adrenal cortex neoplasm: Recently, we reported that in human adrenocortical tumor cells, exogenous POD-1 binds tothe SF-1 E-box sequence and inhibits SF-1 expression as well as theexpression of the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) (16), which is responsible for the initial hormone-dependent andrate-limiting step of cholesterol transport during steroidogenesis (17).