DYNAMICS OF CORTICOSTEROID RECEPTORS : LESSONS FROM LIVE CELL IMAGING

Abstract

Adrenal corticosteroids (cortisol in hirmans or corticosterone in rodents) exert numerous effects in the central nervous system that regulate the stress response, mood, learning and memory, and various neuroendocrine functions. Corticosterone (CORT) actions in the brain are mediated by two corticosteroid receptors, glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), and they show a high degree of colocalization in the hippocamal region. These receptors are predominantly resided in the cytoplasm without ligand and translocated into the nucleus upon ligand binding to act as transcriptional factors. Thus their subcellualr localizations are important component of their biological activity. Given the differential action of MR and GR in the central nervous system, it is important to elucidate how the trafficking of these receptors between cytoplasm and nucleus and their interaction are regulated by ligand or other molecules to exert transcriptional activity. In this review, we focus on the nucleocytoplasmic and subnuclear trafficking of GR and MR in neural cells and non- neural cells, and discuss various factors affecting the dynamics of these receptors.