Glucocorticoid administration has been shown to exert complex effects on cognitive and emotional processing. In the current study we investigated the effects of glucocorticoid administration on attention towards emotional words, using an Affective Go/No-go task on which healthy humans have shown an attentional bias towards positive as compared to negative words. Healthy volunteers received plac...

The use of intra-articular steroids in the treatment of osteo-arthritis of the knee joints has not been much discussed in the literature. Burgess (1957) states that intra-articular hydrocortone is of most value in joints distended by synovial fluid. Williams (1958) found that hydrocortisone tertiarybutylacetate was effective over a longer period than hydrocortisone, but that both might dramatic...

Hydrocortisone-stimulated synthesis of histidine decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.22) was studied in rat stomach. Single or daily administration of hydrocortisone increased the histidine decarboxylase activity but not the histamine content in the fundic glands of stomachs from fed and fasted rats with or without adrenalectomy, and also in those from adrenalectomized fasted rats with concomitant treatmen...

The molecular mechanisms of regulation of the CYP3A4 gene have been examined in an in vitro reporter gene system, containing -1 kb of the CYP3A4 promoter, in a HepG2 cell line. This system allows for the separate and combined transfection of expression plasmids encoding the human glucocorticoid receptor (hGR) and the human pregnane X receptor (hPXR), and, therefore, the opportunity to assess th...

Hydrocortisone has been found to induce glutamine synthetase activity in chick-embryo retinas in culture. Evidence is presented to show that the hydrocortisone is definitely required for transcription; its requirement for translation has not been ruled out. The possible identity of hydrocortisone with an active component of calf-serum diffusate reported earlier is discussed. The data also indic...

BACKGROUND The skin of patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) is heavily colonized with Staphylococcus (S.) aureus, even at uninvolved sites. Toxins secreted by the majority of S. aureus on the skin behave as superantigens and can directly influence the disease activity, although clinical signs of bacterial superinfection might be absent. OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to compare the effic...

BACKGROUND Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a care-related event that could be promoted by immune suppression caused by critical diseases, malignancies and cancer treatments. Low dose of hydrocortisone was proposed for modulation of immune response in the critically ill population. METHODS In this monocentric observational study, all cancer patients mechanically ventilated for more th...

BACKGROUND Evidence from several lines of investigations suggests that Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is involved in atherosclerosis as a bridge between innate and acquired immunity. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) can trigger inflammation through activation of human TLR4 (hTLR4) on monocytes. Hydrocortisone as an anti-inflammatory and immuno-suppressant agent has multiple mechanisms of a...

Glucocorticoid replacement is needed for patients after adrenal surgery for Cushing's syndrome; however, the adequate dosage is not easily determined. The patient was a 62-year-old woman who has had hypertension for 5 years and presented with heart failure due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. She consulted with us because of general fatigue, facial edema, and muscle weakness and was diagnosed wi...

The gastric mucus is an important factor in the gastric mucosal protection from acid, pepsin and various reagents (alcohol, aspirin, etc.). MUC5AC is the mucin secreted from surface mucous cells, and belongs to the gel-forming mucin. We examined the regulation of rat MUC5AC (rMUC5AC) mRNA by glucocorticoid in vivo and in vitro, comparing it with that of pepsinogen (Pg) mRNA. By adrenal gland re...