Fig. 1.

Mechanisms of glucocorticoid (GC) action. GC crosses the cell membrane and binds to the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in the cytoplasm. GRs are kept in an inactive state and prevented from moving into the nucleus by heat shock proteins (HSP). Upon binding of a GC to a GR, the HSP dissociates and the GC-GR complex moves to the nucleus via a nuclear pore (NP). The complex then binds to GC-responsive elements (GRE) in the 5′ promoter region of DNA. Transcription is then activated. However, if the region contains a negative GRE, transcription is repressed