Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2022 Jun 28;70(8):1662–1680. doi: 10.1136/jim-2021-002161

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© American Federation for Medical Research 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. Published by BMJ.

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, an indication of whether changes were made, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

PMC Copyright notice

Molecular mechanisms of glucocorticoid (GC) action. (A) GCs are most well known for their effects on DNA transcription of inflammation-related genes. GCs in the cytoplasm associate with chaperone proteins and glucocorticoid receptor α (GR). This complex translocates to the nucleus to bind promoter regions of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory genes. The GR-GC complex can promote or inhibit gene expression through directly binding the DNA promoter region (Direct); by binding to a transcription factor (Tethering); or by binding both the DNA and the transcription factor (Composite). (B) GCs can also interrupt inflammatory cascades by intercepting mRNA transcripts for proinflammatory genes such as NF-κB. GCs complex with GR and other chaperones to form a protein complex that binds to mRNA causing it to lose stability and degrade.^{8 9} GR-GC protein complexes also promote the transcription of the mRNA-degrading enzyme TTP, thereby increasing the degradation of cytoplasmic mRNA. (C) GCs induce immediate, non-genomic changes by intercalating in the cell membrane’s lipophilic interior. The intercalating GCs promote a reduction in intracellular calcium and ATP levels (* marks the GC).