text: Unbound AR is mainly located in the cytoplasm, like a typical steroid receptor, and is associated with a complex of heat shock proteins (HSP) through interactions with LBD. Androgens, either agonists or antagonists, position themselves in the ligand-binding pocket (LBP) of the cytosolic AR and bind to the LBD, see figure 2. The AR goes through a series of conformational changes and HSP dissociate from AR. The transformed AR undergoes dimerisation, phosphorylation and translocates to the nucleus. The translocated receptor then binds to the androgen-response elements (ARE) on the promoter of the androgen responsive gene, a consensus sequence located either upstream or downstream of the transcription start site (TSS) of AR target genes.  Recruitment of other transcription co-factors (including co-activators and co-repressors) and general transcriptional machinery further ensures the transactivation of AR-regulated gene expression. All these complicated processes are initiated by the ligand-induced conformational changes in the LBD. Ligand specific recruitment of coregulators might be crucial for the agonist or antagonist activity of AR ligands. Binding of DNA is also required for AR-regulated gene expression, also known as classic genomic gene function of AR.