A few recent studies have suggested that glucocorticoid stress hormones can play a role in sexual selection. In terms of mate choice, these studies have shown that individuals can exhibit preferences for mates with either low baseline or peak glucocorticoid levels. This appears to occur because stress hormones can be key mediators of many condition-dependent, sexually selected traits that serve...

objective(s) this study was conducted to evaluate the effects of niacin on glucocorticoid-induced dyslipidemia and fatty liver in rats. materials and methods twenty four adult male rats were divided randomly into four equal groups: 1- normal saline (control), 2- dexamathasone 0.125 mg/kg/day, i.m., 3- dexamathasone + niacin 200 mg/kg/day, oral gavages, 4- niacin. after 2 weeks, serum total chol...

adrenal insufficiency is a life-threatening disorder which must be treated with glucocorticoid replacement and needs permanent dose adjustment during patient's different somatic situations. insufficient glucocorticoid doses result in adrenal crisis and must be treated with intravenous hydrocortisone. the patient was known with adrenal insufficiency and was treated optimally with fludrocortisone...

The glucocorticoid receptor binds with high specificity to glucocorticoid response elements, discriminating them from other closely related binding sites. Three amino acids in the recognition alpha-helix of the DNA-binding domain of the receptor are primarily responsible for this specific DNA binding activity. In this study we analyze in detail how these residues determine the specific DNA bind...

Developmentally, the pancreas and liver are closely related and pathological conditions - including elevated glucocorticoid levels - result in the appearance of hepatocytes in the pancreas. The role of the WNT signalling pathway in this process has been examined in the model transdifferentiating pancreatic acinar AR42J-B-13 (B-13) cell. Glucocorticoid treatment resulted in a transient loss of c...

Previously, it has been shown that the hormone binding domain of the glucocorticoid receptor acts as a transferable regulatory cassette that can confer hormonal control onto chimeric proteins [Picard, D., Salser, S. J., & Yamamoto, K. R. (1988) Cell 54, 1073-1080]. The hormone binding domain of the glucocorticoid receptor contains its site of interaction with the 90-kDa heat-shock protein, hsp9...

The phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) gene promoter contains a glucocorticoid response unit (GRU) that includes, as a linear array, two accessory factor binding sites (AF1 and AF2) and two glucocorticoid receptor binding sites. All of these elements are required for a complete glucocorticoid response. AF1 and AF2 also partially account for the response of the PEPCK gene to retinoic acid...

Glucocorticoids play a fundamental role in many physiologic functions and contribute substantially to the achievement of homeostasis. These pleiotropic glucocorticoid actions are mediated by a ubiquitously expressed transcription factor, the human glucocorticoid receptor (hGR), which may influence the transcription rate of numerous target genes, interact with other transcription factors, trigge...

Glucocorticoid stress hormones and their artificial derivatives are widely used drugs to treat inflammation, but long-term treatment with glucocorticoids can lead to severe side effects. Test systems are needed to search for novel compounds influencing glucocorticoid signaling in vivo or to determine unwanted effects of compounds on the glucocorticoid signaling pathway. We have established a tr...

Hepatic glucocorticoid receptor binding activity was measured in A/J, C57BL/6J, their F1 reciprocal crosses and their F1 recombinant inbred (RI) lines. The glucocorticoid binding capacity was measured in Hepes buffer and Hepes buffer plus dithiothreitol (DTT). The A/J parental strain showed higher levels, and a greater increase of glucocorticoid binding in the presence of DTT, than did the C57B...