Glucocorticoid Signaling

Wang, Jen-Chywan, Harris, Charles, Jen-Chywan Wang, Charles Harris

We hope this book has provided a robust introduction to glucocorticoid action. We have provided a historical perspective on discoveries related to glucocorticoid action: from the discovery of the hormones, their use as therapeutics for inflammatory disease, biochemical identification of receptors and finally the cloning of the glucocorticoid receptor. This has led to identification of not only the primary amino acid sequence, but structural information gleaned from both X-ray crystallography as well as nuclear magnetic resonance approaches. We hope the reader comes away with a better understanding of the many actions of glucocorticoids on various tissues and cell types. Indeed, one of the unanswered questions in our field is how one hormone and receptor can have such varied transcriptional responses in different cell types. Surely, some of this will be explained by epigenetic modifications that occur in different cell types.