Mineralocorticoid receptor activation and specificity-conferring mechanisms: a short history

The mineralocorticoid receptor (henceforth MR) was first characterized 45 years ago (Funder 1972, Rousseau 1972), a decade and a half before its successful cloning (Arriza 1987) to which this issue of the Journal is dedicated. Aldosterone had been isolated and characterized 20 years before the MR: its initial name was electrocortin, reflecting its ability to promote electrolyte transport across epithelial membranes, rapidly changed to its familiar, current name aldosterone. What prompted the change was the finding of a unique aldehyde group at carbon18 of the steroid molecule, the physiological significance of which only became clear many years later (Funder 1988, Edwards 1988).

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