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Partner 8 - Bereich Humanmedizin Georg-August Universität Göttingen

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University and research group information

The Department of Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology belongs to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Goettingen. The clinical obligations of the department comprise determination and interpretation of hormonal constellations of patients. The 3 medically trained staff members see outdoor patients primarily with endocrine problems related to dysregulation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis.

Contribution to CASCADE

1. Hormone replacement therapy – nowadays also called hormone therapy (HT) is under critique because several clinical studies indicated severe adverse effect like increased incidence of mammary cancer, heart attacks and strokes. Therefore food additives such as plant derived, so called phytoestrogens (primarily isoflavones which bind to estrogen receptors) experience aggressive advertisements and increased sales. Whether they are safe, particularly when administered unopposed by progestins to postmenopausal women has not be thoroughly studied and is one of the major scientific tasks of the department. Lately, putatively beneficial effects of isoflavones in the mammary gland and in the prostate came also into the focus because pubertal administrations of these compounds appear to prevent development of breast or prostate cancer later in life.
2. Many endocrine disruptors (EDs) which are amply present in foods bind to estrogen or androgen receptors. In the past their effects were primarily studied in reproductive organs such as the uterus and the prostate. As receptors for gonadal steroids are amply expressed in other than reproductive organs such as the bone, the urinary bladder, the thyroid gland and the heart as well as in fat tissue the second scientific task of the department is to study effects of EDs outside the reproductive tract.

Representative scientific articles as relevant to CASCADE

Wuttke, W., Jarry, H., Westphalen, S., Christoffel, V., Seidlová-Wuttke, D.
Phytoestrogens for hormone replacement therapy?

J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 83: 133-147, 2003.

Wuttke, W., Jarry, H., Becker, T., Schultens, A., Christoffel, V., Gorkow, C.,  Seidlová-Wuttke, D.
Phytoestrogens: Endocrine disrupters or replacement for hormone replacement therapy?

Maturitas 44:S9-20, 2003. 

Seidlová-Wuttke, D., Hesse, O., Jarry, H., Christoffel, V., Spengler, B., Becker, T., Wuttke, W.
Evidence for selective estrogen receptor modulator activity in a black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) extract: comparison with estradiol-17ß.

Eur J Endocrinol 149:351-362, 2003.

Schmutzler, C., Hamann, I., Hofmann, P.J., Kovacs, G., Stemmler, L., Mentrup, B., Schomburg, L., Ambrugger, P., Grüters, A., Seidlova-Wuttke, D., Jarry, H., Wuttke, W, Köhrle, J.
Endocrine active compounds affect thyrotropin and thyroid hormone levels in serum as well as endpoints of thyroid hormone action in liver, heart and kidney.

Toxicology 205:95-102, 2004.

Seidlová-Wuttke, D., Jarry, H., Wuttke. W.
Pure estrogenic effect of benzophenone-2 (BP2) but not of bisphenol A (BPA) and dibutylphtalate (DBP) in uterus, vagina and bone. Toxicology, 205:103-112, 2004.