FIGURE 1.

Schematic of experiments. (A) Experiment 1. C57Bl6/J mice were assigned to receive dexamethasone (DEX) in drinking water (n = 6 mice in three cages) or water alone (n = 6 mice in three cages) for 4 weeks. Control (CTL) mice received only standard drinking water (group A). Following 4 weeks treatment, two animals selected at random from each cage were sacrificed (group B). Following one further week, two further mice from each cage were collected as at time 0 (group C). The last animals were collected 4 weeks after DEX withdrawal (group D). Age matched controls were assigned to group A. WT, wild‐type. (B) Experiment 2. Here, 16 cages of three mice were randomly assigned to four treatment groups, A; receiving water in drinking water for 8 weeks, B; drinking water for 4 weeks and then DEX for 4 weeks, C; water for 3 weeks, DEX for 4 weeks then 1 week with drinking water and D; DEX for 4 weeks then drinking water for 4 weeks. All animals were collected at a single time point at the end of the experiment as above. Animals were reverse lit and collected at the point of waking. (C) Experiment 3 was conducted as Experiment 2, except that animals were not reverse lit and Pomc‐eGFP mice were used. Twelve cages of three animals were assigned randomly to the four groups. At the end of the experiment, tissue was collected as in Eexperiments 1 and 2, but anterior pituitary was dissected and dissociated for FACS isolation of corticotrophs. RNA from isolated corticotrophs underwent RNA‐seq. Numbers to the right refer to numbers of animals/in how many cages