inhibition of lymphocyte adhesion to cytokineactivated synovial fibroblasts by glucocorticoids involves the attenuation of vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 gene expression objective the aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of glucocorticoids to inhibit lymphocyte adhesion to human synovial fibroblastsmethods adhesion of lymphocytes to cultured synovial fibroblasts was measured by counting the number of cells bound to fibroblasts surface expression of intercellular adhesion molecule 1 icam1 was measured by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay while vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 vcam1 surface expression was measured by flow cytometry icam1 and vcam1 messenger rna mrna levels were assessed by northern blot analysisresults stimulation of synovial fibroblasts by the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha interleukin1beta and interferongamma resulted in a dosedependent increase in lymphocyte adhesion to synovial fibroblasts this response was inhibited by preincubation of the cells with the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone since lymphocyte adhesion to synovial fibroblasts is known to be mediated by vcam1 and icam1 we examined the modulation of vcam1 and icam1 expression in these cells all 3 cytokines stimulated vcam1 and icam1 surface and mrna expression dexamethasone inhibited both vcam1 and icam1 surface and mrna expression in a dosedependent manner which correlated with the inhibition of lymphocyte adhesionconclusion taken together these results suggest that glucocorticoids may reduce inflammatory responses at extravascular sites by inhibiting the expression of these adhesion molecules thereby reducing the adhesion of lymphocytes to connective tissue cells