Corticosteroid

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

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.

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.