Glucocorticoid receptors and enzyme induction in the spinal cord of rats: effects of acute transection.

The spinal cord is a glucocorticoid-responsive tissue, as demonstrated by hormonal effects on enzyme induction and by the presence of type II and type I glucocorticoid receptors in cytoplasmic extracts of this CNS region. Using microdissection techniques, we have found in the present investigation that glucocorticoid type II receptors are the most abundant class detected in gray (ventral and dorsal horns) and white (lateral funiculus) matter and that the distribution of type II sites among these regions was quantitatively similar. Type I sites were also quantified, with a slight prevalence in gray matter as opposed to white matter. Furthermore, stimulation of an inducible enzyme, ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), was found in ventral horn and lateral funiculus but not in dorsal horn after administration of dexamethasone (DEX), a type II receptor ligand. We also found that surgical transection of the spinal cord, while markedly increasing ODC activity per se, did not prevent the stimulatory effect of DEX administration on ODC activity measured in the lumbar enlargement of the spinal cord located below the surgical lesion. Taken together, the results suggest a direct effect of glucocorticoids on ODC activity in the spinal cord of rats, probably mediated by glucocorticoid receptors (type II) found in target cells of the ventral horn and lateral funiculus. The results also indicate that glucocorticoid receptors of the dorsal horn were not involved in ODC induction, and a function for these receptors awaits the results of further experimentation.