OBJECTIVEThe present study was undertaken to investigate the expressions of glucocorticoid receptor‐α (GR‐α) and ‐β (GR‐β) messenger RNA (mRNA) in normal parotid and adenoma tissues.STUDY DESIGN AND SETTINGEighteen pleomorphic adenomas of the parotid gland and 12 parotid gland tissues adjacent to adenomas were studied by using real‐time fluorescent quantitative reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction method.RESULTSThe expression of both GR‐α and GR‐β mRNA in parotid adenoma were higher than that in normal parotid glands (P < 0.001), the GR‐α/GR‐β ratios in parotid adenoma were lower than that in normal parotid glands (P < 0.001), and there were no differences of both GR‐α and GR‐β mRNA as well as GR‐α/GR‐β ratios in male and female (P > 0.05).CONCLUSION AND SIGNIFICANCEOur results showed that the mRNA expression of both GR‐α and GR‐β were detectable in all studied specimens. The mRNA levels of these 2 GRs were higher, whereas the GR‐α/GR‐β ratios were lower in adenomas tissues than that in the parotid gland; no differences of these 2 GRs as well as GR‐α/GR‐β ratios were found between sexes. These data indicate that the relationship between the expressions of GRs and the clinical significance in parotid adenomas need further and profound investigation.