### process | secretion | hormone | corticosteroid:

Glucocorticoid
* Most glucocorticoids appear to be readily absorbed when administered orally.
* act on mast cells by slowing the synthesis of histamines.
* affect almost every organ and tissue in the body
  - calcium and bone metabolism in many ways
  - metabolism and have anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects
  - weight, growth, and development
* also inhibit collagenase activity, but side effects preclude long-term use
  - modulate the growth, reproductive and thyroid axes
  - reduce the body's inflammatory response
* are a wonderful and complex class of medicines.
* are also potent catabolic hormones, and regulate both sugar and fat metabolism
  - widely used clinically for the treatment of a variety of immune disorders
  - another group of hormones that are produced by the adrenal glands
  - available as inhalers, creams, ointments, pills and injections
  - corticosteroids
  - essential to life
  - hormones that aid in carbohydrate processing
  - known to accelerate cancer growth
  - one of the prime inducers of apoptosis among cells of the immune system
  - produced by the middle cortex
  - safe if used correctly
  - steroid hormones in the same class as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone
* are the adrenal born hormones which activate the glucocorticoid receptor
  - physiological messengers sent by a broken heart
* attenuate taste aversions produced by toxins.
* belong to the same family of steroid hormones as estrogen and testosterone.
* block both airway responses and cysteinyl-leukotriene synthesis.
* can also produce substantial but short-lived remissions.
* cause calciuresis and decrease the intestinal absorption of calcium
  - numerous side effects
  - profound and varied metabolic effects
* differentially affect the physiology of the amygdala and hippocampus.
* enhance histamine-evoked catecholamine secretion from bovine chromaffin cells
  - oxidative stress-induced cell death of hippocampal neurones in vitro
* exert a suppressive effect on bone formation.
* exert both direct and indirect effects on bone
  - permissive and suppressive actions to protect the body against stress
* have a direct effect through their action on osteoblasts and osteoclasts.
* have anti-inflammatory activity
  - and immunosuppressive effects and reduce joint erosion
  - properties and cause profound and varied metabolic effects
  - pleiotropic effects on small intestinal crypt cells
* increase fatty-acid synthase mrna stability in fetal rat lung.
* induce cell death in lymphoid cells.
* inhibit apoptosis in human neutrophils
  - both the early and late stages of inflammation
  - growth of embryonic rat heart developing without hemodynamic load
  - keratinocyte growth factor production in primary dermal fibroblasts
  - the induction of nitric oxide synthase in macrophages
* interact with innervation to control growth of fetal hearts in oculo.
* maintain glucose availability.
* oppose translational control by leucine in skeletal muscle.
* play a complex regulating role in the maintenance of tight junctions.
* potentiate central actions of angiotensin to increase arterial pressure.
* prepare the body's energy stores and immune responses for defence.
* promote protein catabolism during times of stress
  - somatostatin secretion in the anterior pituitary
* reduce inflammation in the lungs.
* regulate glutamine synthetase expression in lung epithelial cells
  - protein, carbohydrate and fat metabolism
  - the expression of the human osteoblastic endothelin A receptor gene
* stimulate amino acid degradation in liver which yields fumarate and acetoacetate.
* then mediate the body's adaptive response to stress.