Abstract
Previously, we found that inflammatory mediators modulated the number and binding affinity of glucocorticoid receptors (GR) in human bronchial epithelial cell lines . In this study we investigated whether smoking and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), both characterized by airway inflammation with increased levels of inflammatory mediators , affect GR characteristics in cultured human bronchial
epithelial cells (HBEC). A statisticallys ignificant difference was found be tween the dissociation constant
(Kd) values in HBEC from smoking (Kd = 0.98 ± 0.08 nM;