OBJECTIVES The previous finding of an immunologic response primarily directed against transglutaminase (TG)6 in patients with gluten ataxia (GA) led us to investigate the role of TG6 antibodies in diagnosing GA. METHODS This was a prospective cohort study. We recruited patients from the ataxia, gluten/neurology, celiac disease (CD), and movement disorder clinics based at Royal Hallamshire Hos...

................................................................................................... 7 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ...................................................................... 9 Human Immunology and HLA ....................................................................... 9 Intestinal mucosal immunology .......................................................................

Autoantibodies specific for the enzyme transglutaminase 2 (TG2) are a hallmark of the gluten-sensitive enteropathy celiac disease. Production of the Abs is strictly dependent on exposure to dietary gluten proteins, thus raising the question how a foreign Ag (gluten) can induce an autoimmune response. It has been suggested that TG2-reactive B cells are activated by gluten-reactive T cells follow...

Celiac disease is the most important cause of intestinal villous atrophy. Seronegative intestinal villous atrophy, including those that are nonresponsive to a gluten-free diet, is a diagnostic challenge. In these cases, before establishing the diagnosis of seronegative celiac disease, alternative etiologies of atrophic enteropathy should be considered. Recently, a new clinical entity responsibl...

Purpose Celiac disease is a common autoimmune disease that is under-diagnosed. Challenges in its diagnosis are due to the frequent presentations of silent celiac disease, without overt diarrhea, and the perceived rarity of the disease despite recent studies showing that its prevalence approaches 1% of the United States population. Published studies have shown that the diagnosis of celiac sprue ...

In the last twenty years serology for the diagnosis of coeliac disease has improved substantially. As the result of our serological studies in 1998 we proposed a gentle, low-risk, and cost eff ective algorithm for diagnosing various forms of gluten sensitive enteropathy, using a combination of diff erent antibody determinations, namely IgA Endomysium antibodies (EMA), Tissue-transglutaminase an...