Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Transplant. Nov 18, 2021; 11(11): 443-465
Published online Nov 18, 2021. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v11.i11.443
Current status of glucocorticoid usage in solid organ transplantation
Simin Dashti-Khavidaki, Reza Saidi, Hong Lu
Simin Dashti-Khavidaki, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 14155, Iran
Reza Saidi, Department of Surgery, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, United States
Hong Lu, Department of Pharmacology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, United States
Author contributions: Dashti-Khavidaki S and Lu H designed the report; Dashti-Khavidaki S wrote the paper; Saidi R and Lu H revised the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hong Lu, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse NY 13210, United States. luh@upstate.edu
Received: May 27, 2021
Peer-review started: May 27, 2021
First decision: July 28, 2021
Revised: September 16, 2021
Accepted: November 3, 2021
Article in press: November 3, 2021
Published online: November 18, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: Due to their potent immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory effects, glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely used in solid organ transplantation (SOT). We review the current status of GC usage in SOT, including the different clinical uses in transplant recipients and donors, new strategies for targeted organ delivery of GCs, and enhancement of immune-tolerance vs immunosuppressive effects. Major concerns about GCs, such as their adverse effects on various organs and their potential drug-drug interactions in SOT patients, are also discussed.