Endocrine Abstracts

Exposure to high levels of glucocorticoids (GCs) at critical stages in development is thought to compromise immune function in adulthood (1), but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Accordingly, we have examined the effects of perinatal dexamethasone treatment on the expression in the adult thymus of (a) inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS-2, paradoxically also expressed constitutively in the thymus) which liberates NO, a factor involved in the negative selection...