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Ernesto Canalis, Editorial: Inhibitory Actions of Glucocorticoids on Skeletal Growth. Is Local Insulin-Like Growth Factor I to Blame?, Endocrinology, Volume 139, Issue 7, 1 July 1998, Pages 3041–3042, https://doi.org/10.1210/endo.139.7.6169
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Glucocorticoids have profound effects on the skeleton due to their actions on the cells of bone and cartilage. The consequences of these effects have serious clinical implications, and glucocorticoids cause osteoporosis and impaired longitudinal growth. New knowledge about the mechanisms of glucocorticoid action on skeletal cells is welcome, so that their detrimental effects can be prevented and possibly reversed. Glucocorticoids, like other hormones, act directly on target genes and regulate them at the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. Alternatively, they may act by modifying the synthesis, receptor binding, or binding proteins of growth factors secreted by target cells. Some of the skeletal effects of glucocorticoids are beneficial because they may induce the differentiation of cells of the osteoblastic lineage into mature osteoblasts, an effect in part mediated by bone morphogenetic protein-6 (1). Unfortunately, most of the skeletal effects following chronic exposure to glucocorticoids result in decreased skeletal mass and short stature (2–4).
