Genetics of Glucocorticoid Receptor Levels in Recombinant Inbred Lines of Mice

Hepatic glucocorticoid receptor binding activity was measured in A/J, C57BL/6J, their F1 reciprocal crosses and their F1 recombinant inbred (RI) lines. The glucocorticoid binding capacity was measured in Hepes buffer and Hepes buffer plus dithiothreitol (DTT). The A/J parental strain showed higher levels, and a greater increase of glucocorticoid binding in the presence of DTT, than did the C57BL/6J strain. The response of binding in the presence of DTT to that without DTT was expressed as a ratio. The levels and distribution of these measurements among the RI lines and F1 reciprocal crosses suggested that there was a maternal effect on glucocorticoid receptor binding capacity. The data on RI lines suggested epistatic interactions, but could fit a two-gene model. beta 2-Microglobulin, beta-glucuronidase and H-2 (located on chromosomes 2, 5, and 17, respectively) were chosen to analyze any association to glucocorticoid receptor binding, because they have been considered to be related to glucocorticoid-induced cleft palate or glucocorticoid receptors. No significant associations were found.