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  • Title: Steroid hormones and hypertension: the cortisol-cortisone shuttle.
    Author: Stewart PM, Whorwood CB, Walker BR.
    Journal: Steroids; 1993 Dec; 58(12):614-20. PubMed ID: 8116018.
    Abstract:
    The role of adrenal steroid hormones in hypertension has, until recently, focused on disorders of secretion. We describe a new form of mineralocorticoid hypertension which arises from impaired metabolism of physiological glucocorticoid. 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11 beta-HSD) is responsible for the inactivation of cortisol to cortisone. Congenital absence of this enzyme (the syndrome of apparent mineralocorticoid excess) results in cortisol acting as a potent mineralocorticoid. Furthermore, inhibition of this enzyme by glycyrrhizic and glycyrrhetinic acids also accounts for the mineralocorticoid excess states seen following licorice and carbenoxolone ingestion. Whilst impaired 11 beta-HSD activity has been shown in patients with "essential" hypertension, the significance of this finding remains unknown. These clinical studies, however, have uncovered a novel physiological mechanism, whereby the mineralocorticoid receptor (which in vitro has an equal affinity for cortisol and aldosterone) is protected from cortisol excess by the action of 11 beta-HSD. Thus 11 beta-HSD plays a crucial role in determining the in vivo specificity for this receptor.
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