CRH and Cushing syndrome due to macronodular adrenal hyperplasia: A likely cause of these phenotypes is the overexpression of crhb. In mice, broad overexpression of CRH leads to elevated corticosterone (the stress glucocorticoid in rodents) and produces phenotypes similar to Cushing’s syndrome, a human disorder caused by the overproduction of cortisol (Stenzel-Poore et al., 1992; Arnett et al., 2016).