Günter Vollmer - Organ selectivity of Hormone Action

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Previous and current research

The hormonal decline in the elderly, especially women, is associated with numerous symptoms like vasomotor instability, irritability and anxiety and loss of bone mass and integrity (osteoporosis) or more general conditions summarized as menopausal complaints. More recent data support a link between estrogen deficiency and obesity as well.

For a long time hormone replacement therapy has been regarded as the treatment of choice. However, after the abrogation of some parts of the largest clinical study on hormone replacement ever because of the detection of an increased risk for the development of breast and endometrial cancer this therapy is rather conversely discussed both amongst scientist and in the public. On the other hand the clinical study suggested that estrogens may protect from colon cancer.

For this reason affected individuals are now seeking for alternative treatment options which they find in medicinal plant products or nutritional supplements. However, these chemicals are neither sufficiently characterized towards their efficiency nor towards potential safety concerns. Most astonishingly, some of the dietary constituents appear to be health promoting while ingested lifelong through the diet. At the same time they might be associated with risk for human health if used as a fortified dietary supplement to treat already existing unfavourable health conditions. We translated this observation into research projects by studying the impact of diet on hormone physiology in transgenerational animal studies. The effect is striking, as nutritional exposure over several critical periods of female development clearly affects female hormone physiology later in life. One aim of our future research work is to understand the molecular mechanisms behind this observation.

On this background our group currently works on the following projects:
    1. Elucidation of molecular and cellular mechanisms of function of plant secondary metabolites – implications for efficiency and safety of alternative treatment regimen for menopausal complaints
    2. Prevention of hormone related diseases and conditions by dietary intervention
    3. Signalling crosstalk of nuclear receptors
    4. Estrogen deficiency and obesity
    5. Role of estrogens in colon cancer prevention
Our group is also very active in establishing novel analytical test platforms related to steroid hormone action. For example, we are using yeast strains to develop activity based sensors for the detection of the abuse of anabolic androgens in body fluids. Another technical platform used for the detection of steroid hormones is surface plasmon resonance technology.

In these areas we pursue the following projects:
    6. Development of an activity based pre-screening tool for the detection of abuse of anabolic androgens to even detect the activity of compounds with unknown chemical structure.
    7. Development of an estrogen receptor binding assay for the screening of environmental estrogens based on surface plasmon resonance

Future prospects

As we unequivocally demonstrated that a transgenerational dietary intervention strongly modified hormone physiology thereby evoking beneficial activity for the ageing organism e.g. bone protectionwe will continue to pursue this work and extend it by two major aspects: a) understanding of the molecular mechanism behind this protection and b) application of these dietary intervention approaches to experimental animal models of disease.

To obtain new compounds useful to treat menopausal complications we started and we will continue to characterize products originating from traditional European medicinal plants, as well as from traditional medicinal plants from Africa and China.

Selected publications

Diel P, Smolnikar K, Schulz T, Laudenbach-Leschowski U, Michna H, Vollmer G (2001): Phytoestrogens and carcinogenesis – differential effects of genistein in experimental models of normal and malignant rat endometrium. Human Reproduction 16: 997-1006.

Diel P, Thomae RB, Caldarelli A, Schmidt S, Laudenbach-Leschowski U, Vollmer G (2004): The differential ability of the phytoestrogen genistein and of estradiol to induce uterine weight and proliferation in the rat is associated with a substance specific modulation of uterine gene expression. Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 221: 21-32.

Diel P, Hertrampf T, Seibel J. Laudenbach-Leschowski U, Kolba S, Vollmer G (2006): Combinatorial effects of the phytoestrogen genistein and of estradiol in uterus and liver of female Wistar rats. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 102: 60-70.

Starcke S, Vollmer G (2006): Is there an estrogenic component in the metabolic syndrome? Genes & Nutrition, 1: 177-188.

Wober J, Möller F, Richter T, Unger C, Weigt C, Jandausch A, Zierau O, Rettenberger R, Kaszkin-Bettag M, Vollmer G (2007): Activation of estrogen receptor-β by a special extract of Rheum rhaponticum (ERr 731®), its aglycones and structurally related compounds. J. Steroid Biochem. Mol. Biol., in press.
 Günter Vollmer
Günter Vollmer

1984: PhD at Eberhard-Karls-University, Tübingen, Germany

1986-1998: Research Assistent, Group Leader and Acting Head in the Institute of Biochemical Endocrinology/ Molecular Medicine, Medical University, Lübeck, Germany

1989: Visiting Assistant Professor at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

since 1999: Professor of Molecular Cell Physiology and Endocrinology, Dresden University of Technology