Glucocorticoids (GCs) as stress hormones have pleiotropic roles controlling metabolism, inflammation and tissue integrity. GCs can have beneficial effects, such as suppression of inflammation but also elicit adverse effects such as insulin resistance and osteoporosis. Using conditional mutant mice we defined the tissue specfic requirements of the GR and its molecular mechanism for GC effects. I will present a non-canonical role of GR in controlling inflammation and demonstrate novel functional target genes of GR controling bone integrity. Our findings about the physiological functions of the GR are necessary to modify rationales for steroid application and to understand stress-associated diseases.

Prof. Dr. Tuckermann studied Biology performed his graduate studies in the labs of Peter Herrlich (Karlsruhe, Germany) and Peter Angel (Heidelberg, Germany) and his postdoc with Günther Schütz (Heidelberg, Germany). He then worked as a group leader in at the Fritz LIpmann Institute (Jena, Germany) and was appointed as a full professor to head the Institute of Comparative Molecular Endocrinology at the University of Ulm (Germany). Dr. Tuckermann made major contributions to the molecular mechanisms of corticosteroids in beneficial and side effects of steroid therapy. With the help of conditional and function selective knockout mice for the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) he identified the critical cell types and novel mechanisms for anti-inflammatory activities of glucocorticoids in different inflammatory disease models. A second focus of his work contents the effects of glucocorticoids on bone integrity, since glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis is the most secondary osteoporosis.