Human monocyte leukemia cell line THP-1 was stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to simulate the sepsis model and the expression of human glucocorticoid receptor-alpha (GR-alpha) mRNA in montocytes with endotoxin tolerance was investigated. THP-1 cells were cultured in serum-free medium, randomly divided into groups A, B, C, D and E, and stimulated with 0, 10, 10, 100, 0 ng/mL LPS for 24 h followed with 100, 100, 10, 100, 0 ng/mL LPS for another 24 h respectively. The expression of GR-alpha mRNA was detected by semi-quantitative reverse transcriptional polymerase chain reaction. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) was determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results showed that the A values of GR-alpha/beta-actin in groups A, B, C, D and E was 0.607 +/- 0.006, 0.368 +/- 0.005, 0.484 +/- 0.008, 0.509 +/- 0.004 and 0.564 +/- 0.014 respectively with the difference being significant among the groups (P < 0.05). The GR-alpha mRNA expression was negatively correlated with the TNF-alpha expression (P < 0.01). It was concluded that the down-regulation of the expression of GR-alpha mRNA in endotoxin tolerance THP-1 cells might play an important role in the development of endotoxin tolerance in THP-1 cells.