Mona Dixon Gundersen

Avhandlingen er tilgjengelig her!

The doctoral thesis!

Prøveforelesning starter kl. 10.15:

Prøveforelesning har tittelen «Pathogenesis of microscopic colitis`»

Prøveforelesningen vil bli strømmet/ The trial lecture will be streamed!

Disputasen starter 12.15
Disputasen vil bli strømmet/ The defence will be streamed!

Opptak av disputasen vil være tilgjengelig i et døgn. / A recording of the disputation will be available for 24 hours.

Auditoriet er åpent for publikum, men vil også bli strømmet her/ The auditorium is open to the public. The defense will still be streamed here: 

Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag av avhandlingen:

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that affects the large bowel (colon and rectum). Common symptoms include bouts of diarrhoea, rectal bleeding and abdominal pain. The cause of UC is not fully understood.

This thesis investigated interleukin 33 (IL-33), a cytokine and early warning signal of the immune system if the intestinal barrier is injured. This is of interest as IL-33 may be a potential therapeutic target. We investigated the expression of IL-33 in the large bowel using immunostaining and mucosal gene expression. In addition we developed a model with human colonic biopsies taken during endoscopy from UC and healthy controls. We found IL-33 raised in the bowel wall of acute UC, but not in healthy controls. Further we novelly report that hypo-osmotic stress can cause a strong IL-33 signal in the bowel wall. We also identified mucosal genes of interest for future studies in the pathological healing process of fibrosis which also occurs in UC.

Hovedveileder

Professor Jon Ragnar Florholmen, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet

Biveiledere

Professor Guttorm Haraldsen, Avdeling for patologi, Universitetet i Oslo / Oslo universitetssykehus HF

Professor Ruth H. Paulssen, Klinisk bioinformatikk, UiT Norges arktiske universitet

Bedømmelseskomité

Professor Jonas Halfvarsson, School of Medical Sciences, University of Ørebro - 1. opponent.

Professor Espen Sønderaal Bækkevold, Institutt for oral biologi, Universitetet i Oslo - 2. opponent.

Førsteamanuensis Ieva Martinaityte, Institutt for klinisk medisin, UIT, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet – leder av komité.

Disputasleder: Professor Inigo Martinez, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet