Glucocorticoids and stress: permissive and suppressive actions
Abstract
Protection against stress by glucocorticoids is discussed in relation to their permissive and suppressive actions. Evidence from the last decade is summarized regarding the physiological nature of the suppressive actions, and the hypothesis that they prevent stress-activated defense mechanisms from overshooting and damaging the organism. Support for this hypothesis has come from observations on how endogenous or administered glucocorticoids control inflammatory and immune responses, protect in endotoxic and hemorrhagic shock, regulate central nervous system responses to stimuli, and moderate many defense reactions through suppression of cytokines and other mediators. Studies showing that glucocorticoids permissively induce receptors for several mediators that they suppress have led to a model in which stimulated activity of a mediator system is increased permissively through induction of mediator receptors and decreased through suppression of mediator production.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
If exposure to a stressor persists, chronic GC secretion can lead to deleterious consequences on animal behaviour, individual fitness and reproductive success, and can induce immunosuppression.
“If exposure to a stressor persists, chronic GC secretion can lead to deleterious consequences on animal behaviour, individual fitness and reproductive success, and can induce immunosuppression (Munck et al., 1984;Liptrap, 1993;Munck and Naráy-Fejes-Tóth, 1994).”
From Effect of weather conditions and presence of visitors on adrenocortical activity in captive African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) (2017) · cites this paper as Munck and Naráy-Fejes-Tóth, 1994
Cites
Saad, M. J., Folli, F., Kahn, J. A., & Kahn, C. R. (1993) · Journal of Clinical Investigation · doi:10.1172/jci116803 · Cited by 349 · see citing works
Glucocorticoid therapy alters hormonal and cytokine responses to endotoxin in man
Barber, A. E., Coyle, S. M., Marano, M. A., Fischer, E., Calvano, S. E., Fong, Y., Moldawer, L. L., & Lowry, S. F. (1993) · The Journal of Immunology · doi:10.4049/jimmunol.150.5.1999 · Cited by 285 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Sapolsky, R. M., Romero, L. M., & Munck, A. U. (2000) · Endocrine Reviews · doi:10.1210/edrv.21.1.0389 · Cited by 7,541 · see citing works
Self-citationSocial regulation of the cortisol levels in early human development
Gunnar, M. R., & Donzella, B. (2002) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/s0306-4530(01)00045-2 · Cited by 1,088 · see citing works
Stressor specificity of central neuroendocrine responses: implications for stress-related disorders
Pacák, K., & Palkovits, M. (2001) · Endocrine Reviews · doi:10.1210/edrv.22.4.0436 · Cited by 926 · see citing works
Association between stressful life events and exacerbation in multiple sclerosis: a meta-analysis
Mohr, D. C., Hart, S. L., Julian, L., Cox, D., & Pelletier, D. (2004) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.38041.724421.55 · Cited by 401 · see citing works
Natural selection and the regulation of defenses
Nesse, R. M. (2005) · Evolution and Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2004.08.002 · Cited by 365 · see citing works
Glucocorticoids—All-Rounders Tackling the Versatile Players of the Immune System
Strehl, C., Ehlers, L., Gaber, T., & Buttgereit, F. (2019) · Frontiers in Immunology · doi:10.3389/fimmu.2019.01744 · Cited by 308 · see citing works
Glucocorticoids mediate stress-induced priming of microglial pro-inflammatory responses
Frank, M. G., Thompson, B. M., Watkins, L. R., & Maier, S. F. (2012) · Brain, Behavior, and Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2011.10.005 · Cited by 310 · see citing works
“A considerable literature has attempted to understand the physiological function of stress-induced GCs, in particular as they relate to host defense mechanisms (Munck and Naray-Fejes-Toth, 1994).”
HPA axis responsiveness to stress: implications for healthy aging
Aguilera, G. (2011) · Experimental Gerontology · doi:10.1016/j.exger.2010.08.023 · Cited by 250 · see citing works
Stress-induced glucocorticoids as a neuroendocrine alarm signal of danger
Frank, M. G., Watkins, L. R., & Maier, S. F. (2013) · Brain, Behavior, and Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2013.02.004 · Cited by 160 · see citing works
Regulation of kainate receptor subunit mRNA by stress and corticosteroids in the rat hippocampus
Hunter, R. G., Bellani, R., Bloss, E., Costa, A., McCarthy, K., & McEwen, B. S. (2009) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004328 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Transcriptional regulation of episodic glucocorticoid secretion
Liu, Y., Smith, L. I., Huang, V., Poon, V., Coello, A., Olah, M., Spiga, F., Lightman, S. L., & Aguilera, G. (2013) · Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.mce.2012.10.011 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Ozella, L., Anfossi, L., Di Nardo, F., & Pessani, D. (2017) · General and Comparative Endocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.ygcen.2015.12.002 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
- Authors
- MUNCK, A., & NÁRAY‐FEJES‐TÓTH, A.
- Affiliations
- Dartmouth College (US)
- Venue
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1994-11
- Volume
- 746
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 115-130
- ISSN
- 0077-8923 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-6632
- OpenAlex
- W2073015829
- Cited by
- 209
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 9 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 0.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Adrenal Hormones and Disorders
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Estrogen and related hormone effects
- Keywords
- glucocorticoids, stress, inflammation, immune response, endotoxic shock, hemorrhagic shock, cytokine inhibition, receptor induction, central nervous system response
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Brain, Glucocorticoids, Homeostasis, Humans, Immunosuppressive Agents, Models, Biological, Shock, Steroids, Stress, Physiological, Cytokines
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
