Question

A hormone may encounter a cell but not bind to it or affect its activities if the hormone

Answer 1

Hormones come in contact with many cells but only affects limited number of cells, which are called target cells. A target cell responds to a hormone because it bears receptors for the hormone. In other words, a particular cell is a target cell for a hormone if it contains functional receptors for that hormone, and cells which do not have such a receptor cannot be influenced directly by that hormone.