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Partner 7 - Turun yliopisto

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University and research group information

The University of Turku, founded in 1920, is one of the largest universities in Finland. It has 6 faculties, 10 special units and 14 graduate schools. The total number of students is over 16 500 and the number of staff over 2 500. Institute of Biomedicine belongs to the Faculty of Medicine, and houses the Departments of Anatomy, Physiology, Medical Biochemistry, Medical Genetics, Pharmacology and Medical Physics and Chemistry.

Functional Foods Forum is an independent special unit, founded by the Faculties of Medicine and Natural Sciences. FFF is a research and development center providing state-of-the-art research expertise for further development of innovations in functional food area. It brings together the multidisciplinary expertise for the research and development of high-quality safe foods to promote human health and well-being.

Two independent collaborating research groups from University of Turku participate in CASCADE:

* Functional Foods Forum and Department of Anatomy, Institute of Biomedicine
Prof. Sari Mäkelä (Group leader). The research focuses on two areas: 1) Role of dietary phytoestrogens in the development of hormone-dependent diseases, particularly breast (mammary) and prostate cancer, and 2) Sex steroid and estrogen receptor action in reproductive organs. Major emphasis in both research areas is in the in vivo action, and in the development and utilization of experimental disease models.

* Department of Physiology, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku 
Steroid research group: Docent Matti Poutanen (Group leader). The group focuses on various aspects of reproductive physiology: sex steroid metabolism, regulation of pituitary-gonadal axis, and epididymal physiology. The research strategies rely on the use of genetically manipulated mice as model systems. In addition, genes with novel function in reproductive organs are discovered by bioinformatics tools. A great part of the scientific work is carried out in the research consortium 'Research Programme on Male Reproductive Health', nominated by the Academy of Finland as a Center of Excellence in Research for the years 2002-2007. Currently, 4 Post Doctoral fellows and 11 PhD-students and 6 technicians are working on the projects of the research group.

Contribution to CASCADE

Our contribution to CASCADE is mainly involved in the development of experimental disease models, suitable for the investigation of aberrant nuclear receptor action, and for testing the in vivo effects of endocrine disrupting compounds. In general, the genetically modified mouse models are considered to be a very useful tool to understand the complex molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of body homeostasis, and to be used as disease models. The use and development of novel genetically modified mouse models will form the basis for most of our collaborative activities in CASCADE.

Representative scientific articles as relevant to CASCADE:

Förster C., Mäkelä S., Wärri A., Kietz S., Becker D., Hultenby K., Warner M., Gustafsson J.-Å.: Involvement of estrogen receptor beta in terminal differentiation of mammary gland epithelium. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99: 15578-15583, 2002.

Li X., Strauss L., Mäkelä S., Streng T., Huhtaniemi I.T., Santti R., Poutanen M.: Multiple structural and functional abnormalities in the P450 aromatase expressing transgenic male mice are ameliorated by a P450 aromatase inhibitor. Am. J. Pathol., 164: 1039-1048, 2004.

Mäkelä S., Gustafsson J.-Å.: Cellular mechanisms of action including estrogen receptors: ER alpha and ER beta. In Gilani SW and Anderson J (Eds), Phytoestrogens and Health. AOCS Press, Chapter 11, (ISBN 1-893337-32-4), 2002.

Poutanen M., Zhang F-P., Rulli S., Mäkelä S., Sipilä P., Toppari J., Huhtaniemi I.: Reproductive System. In Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol. 159, Transgenic Models in Pharmacology (eds. Stefan Offermanns and Lutz Hein), Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg , 2004.

Saarinen N., Mäkelä S., Santti R.: Mechanisms of anticancer effects of lignans with special emphasis on breast cancer. In Cunnane S and Thompson L (Eds), Flaxseed in Human Nutrition, 2nd Edition, 2003.

Weihua Z , Mäkelä S, Andersson L C, Salmi S, Saji S, Webster J I, Jensen E V, Nilsson S, Warner M, Gustafsson J-Å: A role for estrogen receptor beta in the regulation of growth of the ventral prostate. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98: 6330-6335, 2001.

Zhang F-P, Pakarainen T, Poutanen M, Toppari J, Huhtaniemi I: The low gonadotropin-independent constitutive production of testicular testosterone is sufficient to maintain spermatogenesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 100: 13692-13697, 2003.