ABSTRACT
Airway inflammation plays a central role in the pathogenesis of asthma, and glucocorticoids (also referred to as corticosteroids or glucocorticosteroids) are the most effective agents in the management of this chronic disease (1). The antiinflammatory effectiveness of inhaled glucocorticoids in asthma is the result of actions on multiple inflammatory and structural cells in the lung. Glucocorticoids inhibit expression of many inflammatory proteins, and the antiinflammatory effects of glucocorticoids are mediated through receptors that function by modulation of gene expression. Glucocorticoid receptors (GR) are members of the large steroid/nuclear receptor family that includes more than 25 subfamilies of receptors that act primarily as ligand-activated transcription factors (2). The nuclear receptor family includes receptors for estrogen, progesterone, mineralocorticoids, androgens, vitamin D, thyroid hormone, and retinoic acid as well as a large group of ``orphan'' receptors for which endogenous and synthetic ligands have recently been identified (3).
