Corticosteroid

Corticosteroids are a class of steroid hormones made in the adrenal cortex of vertebrates. The term is also used for the synthetic analogues of these hormones.

Cortisol (hydrocortisone), a corticosteroid with both glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid activity and effects.

The two main classes of corticosteroids are glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids. They do a wide range of physiological processes:

• stress response,
• immune response,
• regulation of inflammation, carbohydrate metabolism, protein catabolism, blood electrolyte levels, and behavior.