Endocrine Abstracts

Development of a functional human lung requires regulation of cell growth, proliferation and differentiation in specific germ layer compartments. Important endocrine regulators of respiratory development include glucocorticoid (GC) steroids and the potent synthetic GC betamethasone is commonly used antenatally to treat the deficits of very preterm human birth. Previous studies with conditional mouse knockouts of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene have established the mesenc...

Glucocorticoid (GC) signalling via the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is essential for normal lung development. Previous work using conditional mouse knockouts of the GR gene established that GR activity in the mesenchymal compartment of the lung is critical for normal respiratory development. Screens for GC-target genes with conditional mesenchymal GR deficient mouse lung (GRmeskO) identified Versican (Vcan), an important extracellular matrix (ECM) component and cell proliferat...