Corticosteroids
Chapter: 2
Hormones produced by the adrenal cortex that have, among other things, antiinflammatory properties. For example, corticosteroids interfere both with the activity of phospholipases (thereby compromising the production of arachidonic acid and, subsequently, of the eicosanoids) and the expression of inducible genes that are quantitatively key to the production of certain kinds of proinflammatory mediators. For example, corticosteroids interfere with the expression of the gene that encodes cyclooxygenase-2, without which the production of prostaglandins by inflammatory cells is greatly reduced.