An unexpected, mild phenotype of glucocorticoid resistance associated with glucocorticoid receptor gene mutation case report and review of the literature.

Background: Glucocorticoid resistance is a rare, sporadic or familial condition caused by mutation of the gene encoding the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Clinically it is characterized by symptoms developed due to local, tissue-specific, or generalized partial insensitivity to glucocorticoids.

Case Presentation: A 31-year-old woman was evaluated because of infertility at the Endocrine Unit of the 2nd Department of Medicine, Semmelweis University.

Polymorphisms of the GR and HSD11B1 genes influence body mass index and weight gain during hormone replacement treatment in patients with Addison's disease.

Objective: Glucocorticoid substitution is essential in patients with chronic primary adrenocortical insufficiency (Addison's disease) and both over-treatment and inadequate dosage have deleterious effects. Individual sensitivity to glucocorticoids is partly genetically determined.

Context: To test the hypothesis whether the well-characterized SNPs of the GR and HSD11B1 genes may modulate the individual sensitivity to exogenous glucocorticoids and may influence clinical and/or laboratory parameters and the glucocorticoid substitution dosage in patients with Addison's disease.

Frequent occurrence of conserved extended haplotypes (CEHs) in two Caucasian populations.

Conserved extended haplotypes (CEHs) are large (>or=1Mb) regions of identical DNA of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region of chromosome 6p in unrelated individuals. They are recognized by family studies and constitute nearly half of MHC haplotypes among European Caucasians. We studied 49 Hungarian Caucasian families in comparison with the previous findings in 2675 normal American Caucasian chromosomes from families in the Boston area.

Linkage analysis of the C4A/C4B copy number variation and polymorphisms of the adjacent steroid 21-hydroxylase gene in a healthy population.

Genes encoding the steroid 21-hydroxylase (CYP21A2) and the complement component C4 proteins (C4A and C4B) are located in the MHC region in a strongly linked structure named RCCX module. Previous studies found that carriers of C4B gene deficiency (C4B*Q0) have higher risk for cardiovascular diseases. A potential explanation is that lacking the C4B gene may result in altered function of the neighboring CYP21A2 gene.