Rasmus Goll

University Hospital of North Norway | UNN · Department of Gastroenterology

Introduction The observed alteration of the intestinal microbiota in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and the effect of transferring a healthy gut flora from a faecal donor using a faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) will be explored in this trial. Methods and analysis This is a protocol for a randomise...

A good and accessible biomarker is of great clinical value in neuroendocrine tumor (NET) patients, especially considering its frequently indolent nature and long-term follow-up. Plasma chromogranin A (CgA) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) are currently used as biomarkers in NET, but their sensitivity and specificity are restricted. 5-HIAA is...

Introduction Obesity is one of the main threats to public health in western countries and increases the risk of several diseases, overall morbidity and mortality. Sustained weight loss will reduce risk factors and improve several obesity comorbidities. Options are conservative treatment such as lifestyle changes, bariatric surgery or medications. C...

Background Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has become an important treatment method in recurrent Clostridioides difficile infections and is under investigation as a treatment for several other diseases. FMT’s mechanism of action is assumed to be through alterations of the colon microbiota. FMT can be delivered by several methods, but few stu...

Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), consisting of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), is a chronic disorder with a considerable negative impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). During the past decade, IBD nurse specialists have been increasingly involved in follow-up care of IBD outpatients, in a consultative and co...

Background and aims Biological therapy for inflammatory bowel disease is efficient in many cases but not all. The underlying molecular mechanisms behind non-response to biological therapy in inflammatory bowel disease are poorly described. Therefore, we aimed to characterize the mucosal cytokine transcript profile in non-immunogenic, non-responder...

Abstract Background The long-term outcomes of Ulcerative colitis (UC) after discontinuation of biological therapy are largely unknown. There is also a lack of accurate and validated markers that can predict outcome after withdrawal accurately. The aims of this study were to describe the long-term outcomes in UC patients following cessation of anti-...

Background Accumulative evidence suggests that the biological behavior of cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) is regulated by their surrounding niche, in which cytokines function as one of the main mediators for the interaction between CSCs and their microenvironment in the colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods We characterized the presentation of CSCs and t...

Epithelial alarmins are gaining interest as therapeutic targets for chronic inflammation. The nuclear alarmin interleukin-33 (IL-33) is upregulated in the colonic mucosa of acute ulcerative colitis (UC) and may represent an early instigator of the inflammatory cascade. However, it is not clear what signals drive the expression of IL-33 in the colon...

Anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) biological therapy has generally been accepted as a standard therapeutic option in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patient who are refractory to steroids or immunomodulators. However, the primary and secondary nonresponse rates to anti-TNF bioagents in patients with IBD are high. To improve the response rate, anti-...

Background: Increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance especially to clarithromycin and metronidazole has been observed in Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). Aim: To characterize the antimicrobial resistance pattern of H. pylori before and after treatment in a cohort of patients accumulated over a period of 15 years after an unsuccessful eradi...

Background Weight loss is important to reduce the risk of metabolic complications in obese individuals, in whom dysregulated adipokines play a central role. This study aims to investigate whether dysregulated adipokines and postprandial triglycerides (TG) improve with a modest weight loss. Methods Individuals with obesity were recruited among patie...

Background Accumulating data suggest that the tumour stroma rapidly undergoes dynamic mechanical and cellular changes by which creates a supportive milieu to promote disease progression and metastasis. Cytokines are reported to play a key role in the modulation of tumour stromal response. Methods The activation of TH17/interleukin (IL)−17A network...

Background Severe inflammatory bowel disease can be successfully treated with biologic drugs such as anti-TNF. However, there is no consensus on if and how to stop treatment. Our group has earlier shown that normalization of TNF gene expression may be a beneficial prognostic factor when attempting to discontinue biologic therapy. We here present da...

Background Biological therapy for ulcerative colitis (UC) such as anti-TNF have shown high efficacy in achieving remission. There is a lack of information about the long-term outcomes after biologic withdrawal and validated clinical, immunologic, genetic or laboratory markers that can predict outcome after withdrawal accurately. The aims of this st...

Neutralizing tumour necrosis factor (TNF) antibodies have been widely used to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the clinical practice. In this review, the principal biomarker analysis revealed that faecal calprotectin, C-reactive protein, serum or mucosal concentrations of anti-TNF monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and antibodies to anti-TNF mAb...

Background Histological evaluation of ulcerative colitis (UC) patients has been debated ever since the first description of the disease and its role in follow-up has never been fully established. Recent evidence suggests an added benefit in accuracy when evaluating if the patient is in remission. Unfortunately, there are several different histologi...

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common disorder of the lower gastrointestinal tract. The pathophysiology is far from settled, but a gut microbial dysbiosis is hypothesized to be a contributing factor. We earlier published a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial on fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for IBS - the REFIT tr...

Background: There are no accurate markers that can predict clinical outcome in ulcerative colitis at time of diagnosis. The aim of this study was to explore a comprehensive data set to identify and validate predictors of clinical outcome in the first year following diagnosis. Methods: Treatment naive-patients with ulcerative colitis were include...

Background and aims: Patients that have failed therapy for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection are incompletely characterized. The aim of this study was to characterize a H. pylori treatment resistant cohort compared to the cohorts of newly diagnosed, earlier eradicated and non-infected. Material and methods: Patients were selected from ro...

Background There are no accurate markers that can predict clinical outcome in ulcerative colitis at time of diagnosis. The aim of this study was to explore a comprehensive data set to identify and validate predictors of clinical outcome in the first year following diagnosis. Methods Treatment naive-patients with ulcerative colitis were included at...

Background: It has been proposed that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a low-grade mucosal inflammatory disease. Objective: To characterize the intestinal inflammatory profile in IBS patients with or without fructose intolerance. Design: Patients referred to colonoscopy with IBS complaints were screened for participation. IBS patients diagnosed ac...

Background There are no accurate markers that can predict clinical outcome in ulcerative colitis at time of diagnosis. The aim of this study was to explore a comprehensive data set to identify and validate predictors of clinical outcome in the first year following diagnosis. Methods Treatment naive-patients with ulcerative colitis were included at...

Background There are no accurate markers that can predict clinical outcome in ulcerative colitis at time of diagnosis. The aim of this study was to explore a comprehensive data set to identify and validate predictors of clinical outcome in the first year following diagnosis. Methods Treatment naive-patients with ulcerative colitis were included at...

ST2 (also known as IL1RL1) is the critical functional receptor for interleukin (IL)-33 in stimulating regulatory T cell (Treg) expansion and function in physiological and pathological conditions. We examined the correlation between ST2 cell expression and FoxP3 positive Tregs in both colorectal adenoma and cancer (CRC) microenvironment by real-time...

Background Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. In UC, a wide range of criteria is used for disease remission, with few studies investigating the differences between disease remission and normal control groups. This paper compares known inflammatory and healing mediators in the mucosa of UC in clinical remission and norm...

Background The onset of ulcerative colitis (UC) is characterised by a dysregulated mucosal immune response triggered by several genetic and environmental factors in the context of host-microbe interaction. This complexity makes UC ideal for metabolomic studies to unravel the disease pathobiology and to improve the patient stratification strategies...

Aim/Objective: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. In UC, a wide range of criteria are used for disease remission, with few studies investigating the differences between disease remission and normal control groups. This paper compares known inflammatory and healing mediators in the mucosa of UC in clinical remission and...

Background: Severity in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is associated to impaired quality of life and fatigue. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) induces significant relief in gastro-intestinal related complaints. The objective was to evaluate the effect of FMT on the secondary endpoints: IBS-related quality of life and fatigue in patients with...

Background Fecal calprotectin is widely used to monitor disease activity in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Multiple commercial kits exist, however, since the analyses are not standardized, these kits cannot be used interchangeably. We aimed to perform a technical evaluation of two kits (Calpro from Calprolab, Norway and Calprest from Eur...

Background Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one major form of inflammatory bowel disease. The cause and the pathophysiology of the disease are not fully understood and we therefor aim in this study to identify important pathophysiological features in UC from proteomics data. Methods Colon mucosa biopsies from inflamed tissue of untreated UC patients at...

Purpose Adipokines produced by white adipose tissue are central in the development of lifestyle diseases. Individuals in industrialized countries spend a substantial part of life in the non-fasting, postprandial state, which is associated with increased oxidation and inflammation. The aim was to study postprandial adiponectin and leptin levels afte...

The onset of ulcerative colitis (UC) is characterized by a dysregulated mucosal immune response triggered by several genetic and environmental factors in the context of host–microbe interaction. This complexity makes UC ideal for metabolomic studies to unravel the disease pathobiology and to improve the patient stratification strategies. This study...

Objectives: A healed intestinal mucosa is the aim of therapy in acute ulcerative colitis (UC). Disruption of mucosal wound healing may lead to severe complications including intestinal fibrosis. This study examined mucosal gene expression in the healing process of acute UC with a special focus on known mediators of fibrosis. Methods: Endoscopic...

Background: The NS5A resistance-associated substitution (RAS) Y93H is found quite frequently (5–10%) at baseline in direct-acting antiviral agents (DAA) treatment-naïve genotype (GT) 3a patients when studied by the population-sequencing method (cut-off 20%). This RAS may impair HCV DAA treatment response, since it possesses a high fold in vitro res...

BACKGROUND Several genetic, bacterial, and environmental factors appear to lead to the onset of ulcerative colitis (UC). Moreover, UC seems to be associated with alterations in lipid metabolism, and a disruption of the balance between pro and anti-inflammatory molecules. Membrane bioactive lipids modulate the immune response by functioning as intra...

Background The onset of ulcerative colitis (UC) is associated with alterations in lipid metabolism and a disruption of the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory molecules. Only a few studies describe the mucosal lipid biosignatures during active UC. Moreover, the dynamics of lipid metabolism in the remission state is poorly defined. Therefore,...

Background Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can progress to cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease in a substantial proportion of patients. The infection is frequently asymptomatic, leaving many infected individuals unaware of the diagnosis until complications occur. This advocates the screening of healthy individuals. The aim of this study...

Background Metabolomics, defined as the large-scale assessment of small molecules, known as metabolites, is a powerful tool in understanding complex inflammatory disease. This approach has been applied to study immune-mediated diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and diabetes mellitus. However, there are few studies describing the meta...

The development of colorectal cancer (CRC) is not only determined by transformed cells per se, but also by factors existing in their immune microenvironment. Accumulating scientific evidence has revealed that interleukin (IL)-33, an IL-1 family member, plays an essential role in the regulation of immune response and is relevant in CRC pathogenesis....

Background The bioactive metabolites of omega 3 and omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3 and ω-6) are known as oxylipins and endocannabinoids (eCBs). These lipid metabolites are involved in prompting and resolving the inflammatory response that leads to the onset of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This study aims to quantify these bioactive l...

Objectives: Resistance-associated substitutions (RASs) may impair treatment response to direct-acting antivirals (DAA) in hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment. We investigated the effects of baseline NS3-RASs (Q80K and R155K) and clinically relevant NS5A-RASs in patients with HCV genotype (GT) 1a infection on treatment outcome, with or without resista...

Background: Mucosal healing is proposed as treat-to-target in ulcerative colitis (UC), even though the definition of mucosal healing remains contested as it has been suggested to be assessed by either endoscopy, histology or both. However, all definitions require an endoscopic evaluation of the mucosa. As endoscopies are invasive and uncomfortable...

Aim: To study if the leptin to adiponectin (L:A) ratio, can be a potential biomarker for postprandial triglyceride clearance, insulin resistance (IR) or leptin resistance (LR) in apparently healthy obese, and obese individuals with established metabolic disease. Methods and results: Fifty adult subjects with obesity (BMI ≥30); of which 36 metabo...

Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), consisting of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), are chronic disorders known to have a considerable negative impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Specialist nurses have been increasingly involved in the follow-up management of IBD patients by having a consultative and coordina...

Background The two major forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), are characterised by a dysregulated mucosal immune response triggered by the intestinal flora. The pathobiology of IBD suggests that this immune response is caused by an imbalance between pro- and anti-inflammatory molecules. The bi...

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common condition characterised by abdominal pain, bloating, and poor quality of life. IBS might be caused by a gut dysbiosis. We aimed to compare faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) with placebo in patients with IBS. Methods: In this double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel-group,...

Background Hepatitis C (HCV) infection causes an asymptomatic chronic hepatitis in most affected individuals, which often remains undetected until cirrhosis and cirrhosis-related complications occur. Screening of high-risk subjects in Northern Norway has revealed a relatively low prevalence in the general population (0.24%). Despite this, late comp...

The role and significance of interleukin (IL)-21 in the development of sporadic CRC have not been well defined. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the dynamics of the IL-21 along colorectal adenoma-carcinoma sequence and to evaluate the impact of IL-21 on clinicopathological parameters and CRC prognosis. The real-time PCR results sho...

The effect of FMT on the enteroendocrine cells in the colon of IBS patients.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to optimize the sample preparation and to further use an improved sample preparation to identify proteome differences between inflamed ulcerative colitis tissue from untreated adults and healthy controls. Experimental design: To optimize the sample preparation, we studied the effect of adding different deter...

Objective: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a very common condition in general practise, affecting 10-20% of the population in the Western world. The clinical picture of diarrhoea-predominant IBS (IBS-D) resembles other chronic diarrhoeic conditions, such as microscopic colitis (MC). It is impossible to separate these by clinical examinations or...

Interleukin 33 (IL-33) is a cytokine preferentially elevated in acute ulcerative colitis (UC), inferring a role in its pathogenesis. The role of IL-33 in intestinal inflammation is incompletely understood, with both pro-inflammatory and regulatory properties described. There are also conflicting reports on cellular sources and subcellular location...

Background: Anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) agents play a pivotal role in the treatment of moderate to severe ulcerative colitis (UC), and yet, no international consensus on when to discontinue therapy exists. Objective: The aim of this study is to study the long-term performance of a treatment algorithm of repeated intensified induction thera...

Background The metabolic syndrome is a worldwide health issue, with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (liver steatosis) being one of its features, particularly closely related to insulin resistance. This study aims to investigate whether quantification of hepatic steatosis by abdominal ultrasonography, using hepatorenal index, is a feasible tool fo...

Background: Previous studies on oxidative state after partial hepatectomy (PHx) report conflicting data on levels of glutathione (GSH) and are mainly presented in rodent models by methodology less sensitive than the present technologies. The current swine model presents GSH levels and the following genetic response post-PHx, utilizing an analytica...

Objectives: T regulatory cells (Tregs) play a critical important role for the occurrence and development of human tumors. Most human colorectal cancers (CRCs) develop from the preformed adenomas, this study is therefore designed to evaluate forkhead box P3 (FoxP3)+ Tregs in human colorectal adenomas. Materials and ethods: FoxP3+ Tregs in human c...

Obesity is associated with the metabolic syndrome. The aims were, first, to study the postprandial triglyceride clearance in young, healthy obese subjects and, second, to investigate if fasting triglycerides can predict delayed postprandial triglyceride clearance. Eighteen apparently healthy, obese subjects with no clinical signs of metabolic distu...

To study the criteria for self-reported dietary fructose intolerance (DFI) and to evaluate subjective global assessment (SGA) as outcome measure. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients were randomized in an open study design with a 2 wk run-in on a habitual IBS diet, followed by 12 wk with/without additional fructose-reduced diet (FRD). Daily regi...

Abstract The single-cell thick intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) lining with its protective layer of mucus is the primary barrier protecting the organism from the harsh environment of the intestinal lumen. Today it is clear that the balancing act necessary to maintain intestinal homeostasis is dependent on the coordinated action of all cell types of...

Animal models of intestinal inflammation, and particularly mouse models, have contributed tremendously to our understanding of the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases. But there are important differences of the immune system between species. Our goal has been to develop a robust and feasible model to study isolated single cells from endosco...

Most sporadic colorectal cancers (CRCs) develop from preformed adenomas. Cytokines are involved in the transition from adenoma to CRC. Interleukin-33 (IL-33) is a newly discovered proinflammatory cytokine belonging to the IL-1 cytokine family and involved in the development of chronic inflammation and cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate t...

Background: Reduced glutathione (γ-glutamylcysteinylglycine), GSH, is essential when protecting cells from oxidative stress and also an indicator of disease risk. Reported concentrations of GSH and its oxidized form, glutathione disulfide (GSSG), varies considerably, primarily due to the instability of GSH and various analytical methods. Methods:...

DOI:10.1016/S1873-9946(14)60161-6

Objectives: To perform a validation of dairy registrations for use as diagnostic tool in IBS and fructose malabsorption (FM). To investigate the precision of the fructose breath test (FBT) as compared with symptom score reduction on fructose-reduced diet (FRD) in a cohort of patients with Rome II defined irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Design: I...

Objective: To investigate mucosal cytokine gene expression levels in healed mucosa after anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) as possible risk factors for relapse after discontinuation of therapy. Design: Thirty-seven CD patients treated with anti-TNF agents until complete mucosal healing, documented by...

Objectives: Interleukin (IL)-17A is an important pro-inflammatory cytokine and involved in the colorectal carcinogenesis. In this study, the authors evaluated the dynamic change of IL-17A expression in the tumor microenvironment throughout the colorectal adenoma-carcinoma sequence. Materials & methods: Using quantitative real-time PCR (polymeras...

Objective: To investigate the effects of adalimumab on the induction of complete endoscopic healing and normalization of mucosal cytokine gene expression in patients with active Crohn's disease. Material and methods: A prospective, single-center study including 77 patients. All were examined by endoscopy before initiation of adalimumab induction...

Mucosal cytokine profile determines T cell differentiation and may play an important role in the clinical course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Cytokines from different T helper (Th) cell subsets are elevated in inflamed mucosa of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), contributing to the inflammation. The aim of this study was to determine t...

Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) have been associated with a T helper1 (TH1) and a TH2 cytokine profile, respectively. Recently, a TH17 lineage has been introduced, but their role in the inflammation of CD and UC is not fully understood. To characterize the cytokines directing the TH17 cells and their interactions with TH1 cells in...

Imatinib, a small molecule inhibitor of ABL, PDGFR and C-KIT, has revolutionized treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). However, resistance to treatment is of increasing importance and often is due to point mutations in the Abl kinase domain (Abl KD). Here, we analysed clinical outcome and mutation status in two independent Nordic population...

The aim was to characterize short-and long-term clinical outcomes of infliximab in fulminant ulcerative colitis. Patients with severe ulcerative colitis meeting the criteria of fulminant colitis after 3 days of glucocorticosteroid treatment were randomized to control or additional induction therapy of infliximab followed by an on demand/maintenance...