H-2 histocompatibility region: influence on the murine glucocorticoid receptor and its response.

The influence of the H-2 histocompatibility complex on glucocorticoid receptor levels, and the biochemical response of glucocorticoid action measured as the degree of inhibition of prostaglandin production, has been studied in the mouse thymus and lung. The B10A (H-2a) strain of mice has significantly higher glucocorticoid receptor levels and a significantly greater biochemical response to glucocorticoid than the B10 (H-2b) strain, which differs from B10A within the H-2 complex only. Thus, the anti-inflammatory hormone response of glucocorticoids is correlated to hormone receptor level, both of which are influenced by the H-2 locus.