Colombel J.F.: Can We Predict and Prevent Crohn’s Disease?
Hello, listeners!
Today's guest on the ESPGHAN podcast is Prof Dr Jean-Frédéric Colombel, whose special interest is inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and with whom today we discuss three articles titled: "Neutralizing anti-granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor autoantibodies recognize post-translational glycosylations on granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor years before diagnosis and predict complicated Crohn's disease"; "Prediction and prevention of inflammatory bowel disease"; and "Prediction and prevention of inflammatory bowel disease: A call to action", listed in order of their publication. (A précis of this podcast, posted at the ESPGHAN website, has full bibliographic detail.)
Before taking up those articles, though, perhaps a bit of information on Prof Colombel is in order. Born in 1956 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, on the English Channel, he studied medicine in Amiens and climbed the academic ladder in Lille, where at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lille, Lille University Hospital, he rose to lead the department of hepatogastroenterology. Then, after only two years in that post, came a caesura: In 2013 he emigrated to New York, to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where since then at Mount Sinai Medical Center he has led an IBD research-and-treatment group. Nearly sixty years of loyalty to the Hauts-de-France – what can have happened to prompt him to turn his back on his native soil?
Well, people lead complicated lives, and Prof Colombel will have had his reasons to abandon moules frites, carbonade, and Maroilles. For today, however, we might set that aside and instead pose the questions: What in his analyses of mucosal immunity in IBD led to the conclusion that IBD can be predicted? If IBD can be predicted, can IBD be prevented? Prof Colombel has those answers for us, and we need only listen to learn.
Literature
Lee S-H et al. Prediction and prevention of inflammatory bowel disease: A call to action. Gastroenterology. 2026 Feb;170(2):233–239. doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2025.09.042. Epub 2025 Dec 18. PMID: 41410638. PMCID: PMC12862785.
Lopes EW et al. Prediction and prevention of inflammatory bowel disease. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2025 Feb;23(3):396–405.e1. doi:10.1016/j.cgh.2024.05.047. Epub 2024 Jul 10. PMID: 38996831.
Mortha A et al. Neutralizing anti-granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor autoantibodies recognize post-translational glycosylations on granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor years before diagnosis and predict complicated Crohn's disease. Gastroenterology. 2022 Sep;163(3):659–670. doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2022.05.029. Epub 2022 May 24. PMID: 35623454. PMCID: PMC10127946.
Prof. Jean-Frédéric Colombel favourite song: Mistral gagnant” – Renaud
ESPGHAN favourite Songs can be found on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0YIHKjxITLEm9XNyHyypTo