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It is exactly 40 years since the first dramatic (and almost totally unpredicted) report that cortisone inhibited inflammation and reduced the symptoms of arthritis (Hench, Kendall, Slocumb & Polley, 1949). Since then, the history of the use of glucocorticoids as anti-inflammatory agents has become almost a matter of common knowledge. First hailed as miracle drugs but then found to have very dangerous side-effects if used indiscriminately (Gaunt, 1974), it nevertheless remains true that glucocorticoids are still very widely prescribed since they can be used to suppress almost any type of inflammation. In view of this long history it is surprising that it is only recently there has been significant progress in the understanding of the cellular mechanisms by which glucocorticoids inhibit inflammation. Moreover, the information that has accumulated has had the unforeseen effect of drawing together several apparently unrelated fields of research, and in some ways it might seem to