Epigenetic programming of diverse glucocorticoid response and inflammatory/immune-mediated disease.

Glucocorticoid plays a fundamental role in maintaining immune homeostasis. Resistance to glucocorticoids is a potential etiology of inflammatory/immune-mediated disease. Most of the glucocorticoid effects are mediated by glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which has a complicated promoter region with multiple promoters. Studies have found that the methylation pattern of GR promoter is highly individual, which may contribute to the diverse glucocorticoid responds. Early life is a critical time for epigenetic programming of the body in which methylation imprints are established. Here we propose a hypothesis that connects the adverse early life events and the development of inflammatory/immune-mediated disease through an epigenetic mechanism, the methylation of GR gene.