Inter-Relations between Adrenocortical Functions and Infectious Illness

Adrenal-Hormone Effects during InfectionMany specific actions have been described for glucocorticoids, but none of these adequately explain how a physiologic concentration of the hormones protect the infected host. The complexity of this problem is due largely to the capacity of adrenal hormones to influence virtually every organ system, defense mechanism and biochemical pathway that might participate in the host response to infectious illness.1,5 The majority of experimental studies conducted in vivo with exogenous steroids leave unanswered many questions concerning the role of the host's own adrenal response. For example, the interaction of corticosteroids with specific antimicrobial systems of host . . .