Oscillating levels of adrenal glucocorticoid hormones are essential for optimal gene expression, and for maintaining physiological and behavioural responsiveness to stress. The biological basis for these oscillations is not known, but a neuronal "pulse generator" within the hypothalamus has remained a popular hypothesis. We demonstrate that pulsatile hypothalamic activity is not required for ge...

A recombinant full length human glucocorticoid receptor stimulates transcription in vitro of test genes containing synthetic glucocorticoid and progesterone response elements or murine mammary tumor virus promoter. The receptor expressed in a baculoviral vector is highly active, enhancing transcription of hormone response genes greater than 30-fold even at a receptor concentration of 1.2 nM. Th...

Hypocortisolism is a frequent finding in individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) with other research findings implying potential dysregulation of glucocorticoid signaling. Glucocorticoid signaling is under the influence of several pathways, several of which are of interest in the study of CFS. Oxidative stress and decreased antioxidant capacity are known to disrupt the hypothalamic-pitu...

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND Familial glucocorticoid deficiency (FGD) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by isolated glucocorticoid deficiency in the presence of normal plasma renin and aldosterone level. Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a form of glomerular disease associated with proteinuria and nephritic syndrome. This is the first case of familial glucocorticoid de...

The relative risk of glucocorticoid-induced hyperglycaemia is poorly quantified. We undertook a meta-analysis to estimate the association between glucocorticoid treatment and hyperglycaemia, overall and separately in individuals with and without diabetes and underlying respiratory disease. We searched electronic databases for clinical trials of adults randomized to either glucocorticoid treatme...

Under the clinical impression that patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may demonstrate signs compatible with hypogonadism, we investigated whether oral glucocorticoid therapy is associated with testosterone deficiency. Thirty six men with COPD of whom 16 were receiving oral glucocorticoid medication (mean+/-SEM dose 9.4+/-1.1 mg prednisolone) were investigated in a cross-...

In contrast to the negative autoregulation of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression seen in most cells and tissues, GR expression is positively autoregulated in human leukemic T cells and in other cells sensitive to glucocorticoid-induced cell death. To determine whether positive autoregulation is a necessary component of glucocorticoid-induced cell death, a wild-type GR gene under the contro...

Modulator is an endogenous low-molecular-weight regulator of both glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors as well as protein kinase C. Structural analysis of modulator purified to apparent homogeneity suggests that it is a novel ether aminophosphoglyceride. In this report, we show that modulator inhibits cytosolic human glucocorticoid receptor (GR) complex activation as measured by DNA-c...

Glucocorticoid-resistant P1798 cell lines have been found to contain levels of glucocorticoid receptor comparable to receptor levels in glucocorticoid-sensitive P1798 cells. Pre viously, most of the P1798 resistant cells examined were found to contain low levels of glucocorticoid receptor, and this was thought to account for the resistance of these cells to glucocorticoid treatment. Resistant c...

Glucocorticoid and thyroid hormones exert their effects in many body tissues by binding to their respective receptors. The search for possible cross-talking mechanisms in overlapping target cells led to the discovery of synergism between a thyroid hormone receptor-binding site and a cryptic glucocorticoid-responsive element. Glucocorticoid responsiveness could only be detected in the presence o...