Divergent transcriptional activation by glucocorticoids in mouse and human macrophages is the result of gain and loss of enhancers

Macrophages are amongst the major targets of glucocorticoids (GC) as therapeutic anti-inflammatory agents. Here we show that GC treatment of mouse and human macrophages initiates a cascade of induced gene expression including many anti-inflammatory genes. Inducible binding of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) was detected at candidate enhancers in the vicinity of induced genes in both species and this was strongly associated with canonical GR binding motifs. However, the sets of inducible genes, the candidate enhancers, and the GR motifs within them, were highly-divergent between the two species.

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Jubb AW, Young RS, Hume DA, Bickmore WA