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The immunomodulatory role of LL-37 in the pathogenesis of psoriasis
(University of Iceland, School of Health Science, Faculty of Medicine, 2025-03-14) Sigurgrimsdottir, Hildur; Björn Rúnar Lúðvíksson, Jóna Freysdóttir; Læknadeild (HÍ); Faculty of Medicine (UI); Heilbrigðisvísindasvið (HÍ); School of Health Sciences (UI)
Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease of the skin, and the most common form, plaque psoriasis, is characterized by raised, well-demarcated, erythematous plaques with adherent silvery scales. The immunopathogenesis has a mixed Th1 and Th17 inflammatory profile, and keratinocytes in the basal layer of the skin hyperproliferate and do not mature properly, causing elongated rete ridges and parakeratosis. Alterations in the immune biomarker microenvironment accompany the pathogenesis of psoriasis, both in skin and blood. LL-37 is an anti-microbial peptide of the innate immune system that has extensive immunomodulatory functions besides having an anti-microbial function. LL-37 takes part in the induction of psoriasis, with a potential role as an autoantigen. In this project, we wanted to further define the immunomodulatory effect of LL-37 upon various immune biomarker secretion by keratinocytes and white blood cells. Blood and skin samples were obtained from psoriasis patients undergoing phototherapy. When analysed, the results corroborated the role of T17 cells, both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, as the percentage of Th17 and Tc17 cells was reduced following phototherapy. In addition, the reduction of Th17 cells positively correlated with both PASI and the histological Trozak score. Within the skin, the number of T cells reduced with psoriasis treatment, and the intensity of immunofluorescent staining of IL-17 in the dermis correlated to the PASI score. There was also a reduction in the percentage of skin-homing CLA+ T cells, both in T17 cells and T22 cells, as well as in CD103+CLA+ skin-homing T cells. Further phenotypic analysis of these skin-homing T cells in psoriasis patients was performed by measuring the expression of the chemokine receptors CXCR3, CCR4, and CCR6. Two groups of CXCR3 expressing T cells were observed, expressing high or intermediate levels, and these two groups were subsequently analysed separately. Different chemokine receptor expression patterns emerged when T cells were subtyped based on the expression of CLA and CD103. When peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were stimulated in vitro with two distinct stimulations mimicking the Th1 and Th17 microenvironment, various biomarker secretory patterns emerged, particularly in association with the presence of LL-37. Due to the differences in CXCR3hi expression of T cells between psoriasis patients and healthy controls (HC), their functional capacity was analysed further. CXCR3hiCD4+ T cells cultured using Th1 and Th17 stimulation, secreted lower levels of IL-10, CXCL8, and IL-1β than CXCR3negCD4+ T cells. The pathogenesis of psoriasis is in part driven by the secretion of immune biomarkers by keratinocytes. Thus, given the above findings, investigation of their inflammatory profile in the same immunomodulatory microenvironment as for the PBMC was performed, focusing on LL-37. The results demonstrate that primary keratinocytes secrete a wide array of chemokines, growth factors, and cytokines that can be significantly affected by Th1 and Th17-driven stimulation. Furthermore, their immune biomarker fingerprinting was frequently altered in the presence of LL-37. In many instances, LL-37 reduced the secretion of immune biomarkers when added to Th1 stimulation as compared to Th1 stimulation alone. Under Th1 and Th17 inflammatory stimulation, LL-37 modulated the secretion of keratinocytes towards a more inflammatory response by increasing secretion of CXCL8 and IL-1β and decreasing secretion of IL-10. In addition, LL-37 also affected the intracellular signalling pathways of keratinocytes by decreasing the phosphorylation of ERK1/2. When the expression of LL-37 in psoriatic skin was analysed, a change in expression pattern of psoriasis patients was observed following treatment, from being distributed all over the epidermis to being defined to the basal layer as also was found in HC skin biopsies. Taken together, this research details the changes in circulatory T cells and the microenvironment in psoriatic plaques, both at cellular and molecular levels, that occur concomitant to phototherapy. We document the secretory potential of PBMCs and keratinocytes of immune biomarkers after stimulation that mimics the psoriasis microenvironment. Furthermore, the immunomodulatory properties of LL-37 on secretion and intracellular signalling pathway activation are described, both in keratinocytes and PBMCs, as well as the biological expression of LL-37 in psoriatic skin. A more detailed understanding of the fundamental pathways that contribute to the pathogenesis of psoriasis is a driving force in more focused therapy. The effects of immunomodulatory agents such as LL-37 need to be mapped out in diverse biological mimicking situations, and we think that we have contributed to this field. This research adds to the basic knowledge regarding the pathogenesis of psoriasis, concerning cellular and molecular changes occurring following psoriasis treatment, and what effects different inflammatory microenvironments and LL-37 have thereon.
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Intertwined Threads: The Value and Function of Vaðmál as Cloth and Money, and Beyond
(University of Iceland, School of Humanities, Faculty of Philosophy, History and Archaeology, 2026-02) Korten, Meghan Anne; Sverrir Jakobsson; Deild heimspeki, sagnfræði og fornleifafræði (HÍ); Faculty of Philosophy, History and Archaeology (UI); Hugvísindasvið (HÍ); School of Humanities (UI)
Vaðmál was the main commodity currency and trade good of medieval Iceland but also a pragmatic fabric for clothing and other textile needs. While previous scholarship has focussed on vaðmál ́s role in the economy and gendered labour relations, this study considers how the material qualities of this textile impacted its value as currency and export good, but also its role as a social object used in display and extra-economic exchange. In doing so, it investigates the economic, social, and cultural impact of vaðmál. It aims to demonstrate an expanded understanding of vaðmál to mean a material, economic, and social object, which in turn reveals intertwined connections between the different sectors of the home, the political, the social, gender, the economic, and international exchange. Focussing on written evidence from the late eleventh to late fourteenth century, this dissertation uses a close reading of the Íslendingasögur, samtíðarsögur, Grágás and Jónsbók, and máldagar, charters, and annals to determine the intended meaning of vaðmál via specific terms (vaðmál, vara, varavoð, söluvoð, hafnarvoð, gjaldavað, and mórent) to gauge the function and context of use to categorize by function and subsequent value. The main findings of this project are that all five functions—material, aesthetic, fungibility, biography, and expense and exclusivity—demonstrate an intertwined meaning of cloth and money that are not easily distinguished from each other, especially when considering the chaîne opératoire and stages of consumption of a textile object, and these functions reflect the needs and desires of this medieval society. Vaðmál’s impact is that it was a tool used by people to meet goals and to help them live their lives: it was an object used to differentiation in social relations, used to form relationships, used to communicate identity and status within society, and use to connect Iceland to markets and cultures abroad through trade. Vaðmál was a complex textile imbued with multiple social and economic meanings, separately or at the same time and by the same or different people, which ultimately show cooperation for survival and success, but also to establish position and prestige in society.
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Unveiling Nordic youth’s aspirations : A multi methods approach
(2025-10-27) Lykkegaard, Eva; Carpelan, Raisa; Blom, Thomas; Duek, Susanne; Gunnþórsdóttir, Hermína; Gustavsen, Ann Margareth; Haliseva, Ville; Mælan, Ellen Nesset; Slotte, Anna; Þrastardóttir, Bergljót; Qvortrup, Ane; Kennaradeild
This study investigates how different narrative interview methods capture young people’s aspirations. Based on a theoretical conceptualization of aspirations, we argue that methods need to capture the young people’s future and present selves, their moral meanings or normative significance of these selves, their lived experiences and social contexts, as well as the multidimensionality and dynamic aspects of their aspirations. The study is based on 75 individual interviews with 25 young people from Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and Denmark, conducted over three rounds. The findings reveal that young people shared varied aspects of their aspirations when using different interview approaches. While some methods (timeline interviews and future script interviews) were particularly useful for capturing the young people’s present selves, lived experiences, and social contexts, other methods (inquiry-based interviews) succeeded in addressing students’ future selves and their moral meanings and the normative significance of these selves, and finally, repeated motivational quantifications captured the multidimensionality and dynamic aspects of their aspirations. The study underscores the benefits of a multi-method approach and longitudinal design in capturing young people’s aspirations and highlights how research collaboration is useful when striving towards consistency in cross-national studies and for continuously refining methods and approaches to optimize comprehensions.
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Students‘ academic well-being in Nordic schools
(Springer Nature, 2026) Gunnþórsdóttir, Hermína; Teglbjærg, Jonas Henau; Rúnarsdóttir , Eyrún María; Roe, Astrid; Klette, Kirsti; Gudmundsdatter Magnusson, Camilla; Sigurjónsson, Jóhann Örn; Faculty of Education
Students’ learning is affected by multiple factors, and recent reviews have highlighted that teaching quality is more important for students’ learning than several other factors. As schools play an essential role in supporting students’ development of social and emotional skills, knowledge, and behaviours, academic well- being should be a focal point in students’ education. This study aims to identify observable characteristics of classroom practice that might enhance students’ perceptions of academic well-being and understand what characterises captivating teachers based on student reports. Data were collected by video recording lessons from 126 Nordic lower secondary classrooms (Grade 8) in language arts, social science education, and mathematics, and students from these classrooms completed the Tripod Student Perceptions Survey (Ferguson, 2012). We use the students’ answers, particularly for the factor Captivate, as a measure of students’ academic well-being and explore the bivariate associations between well-being and observed aspects of teaching. The findings suggest that students’ sense of academic well- being depends on their teacher’s ability to ensure an orderly classroom where time is spent on relevant learning activities and on their teacher’s propensity to engage in actions that directly help them understand “difficult stuff” through definitions of key academic concepts.
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Tölvísi - A 19th Century Icelandic Textbook in Advanced Arithmetic and Algebra
(Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2025-12-11) Bjarnadóttir, Kristín; Pepin, Birgit; Kohanová, Iveta; Education
In 1865, Björn Gunnlaugsson—recently retired after forty years of teaching at Iceland’s sole Latin school—published Tölvísi (“Number Wisdom”), the first Icelandic textbook on advanced arithmetic and algebra. The work closely resembles Danish textbooks by L. Fallesen (1834) and Christian Ramus (1855). It distinguishes itself through a more eloquent style and a particular emphasis on divisibility and the precision of approximations, reflecting Gunnlaugsson’s major scholarly achievement, a geodetic survey that produced the first reliable map of Iceland. Only half of the manuscript was ever printed, and it omitted practical subjects such as ratios, proportions, and interest calculations. The book was never adopted for classroom use. This paper examines the purpose of Tölvísi within its contemporary Icelandic culture.

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