Table 2.

Summary of the mechanisms of action of glucocorticoids.

	Genomic Pathway	Non-Genomic Pathway
Cells targeted	All the organism	Inflammatory cells
Mechanism of action	Genomic modulation	Membrane receptor and intracellular inflammatory pathways
Start of action	~4 to 6 h	~15 min
Saturation dose of the immunosuppressive – anti-inflammatory effects	~100% at 30 to 40 mg/day of prednisone-equivalent	Unknown
Minimum effective dose	2.5 to 5 mg/day of prednisone-equivalent	Over 100 mg of prednisone-equivalent
Maximum effective doses that minimize adverse effects	30 to 40 mg/day of prednisone-equivalent (for trans-repression)	500/day mg of methylprednisolone
Damage accrual with cumulative doses	Proven	Not proven
Glucocorticoids acting by this way	All	Mainly methylprednisolone and dexamethasone