Many gluten peptides elicit proliferative responses from T cells from Celiac Sprue patients, influencing the pathogenesis of this small intestinal disorder. These peptides are Pro- and Gln-rich in character, suggesting that resistance to proteolysis promotes their toxicity. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the digestive resistance of a panel of alpha- and gamma-gliadin peptides believed to ...

BACKGROUND Serologic methods have been used widely to test for celiac disease and have gained importance in diagnostic definition and in new epidemiologic findings. However, there is no standardization, and there are no reference protocols and materials. METHODS The European working group on Serological Screening for Celiac Disease has defined robust noncommercial test protocols for immunoglo...

PURPOSE Immune system of some autistic patients could be abnormally triggered by gluten/casein assumption. The prevalence of antibodies to gliadin and milk proteins in autistic children with paired/impaired intestinal permeability and under dietary regimen either regular or restricted is reported. METHODS 162 ASDs and 44 healthy children were investigated for intestinal permeability, tissue-t...

Dietary gluten has been associated with an increased risk of type 1 diabetes. We have evaluated inflammation and the mucosal immune response to gliadin in the jejunum of patients with type 1 diabetes. Small intestinal biopsies from 17 children with type 1 diabetes without serological markers of celiac disease and from 50 age-matched control subjects were examined by immunohistochemistry. In add...

BACKGROUND Identification of wheat sensitization by a skin prick test (SPT) is essential for children with wheat-induced anaphylaxis, since oral food challenge can cause serious adverse effects. Wheat allergens are both water/salt and alcohol soluble. The preparation of wheat extract for SPT containing both water/salt and alcohol soluble allergen is needed. OBJECTIVE To determine if a wheat e...

BACKGROUND Alopecia areata (AA) is a noncicatricial (nonscarring) alopecia. The association between AA and celiac disease (CD) is debatable. Several studies declare the relationship between AA and CD as measurement of celiac autoantibodies (anti-gliadin IgA and anti-gliadin IgG), but a few studies consider anti-tissue transglutaminase IgA. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency dis...

Jejunal biopsies from 16 treated coeliac disease patients and from nine controls were cultured with and without a peptic-tryptic digest of gliadin. Cultures with a peptic-tryptic digest of maize prolamins were also undertaken. Frozen sections of baseline and cultured mucosa were stained by immunofluorescence with an anti-HLA-DR monoclonal antibody. Before culture the villous epithelium from bot...

Celiac disease is a food-sensitive enteropathy triggered by the ingestion of wheat gluten proteins and related proteins from barley, rye, and some varieties of oat. There are no interventional therapies and the only solution is a lifelong gluten-free diet. The down-regulation of gliadins by RNAi provides wheat lines with all the gliadin fractions strongly down-regulated (low-gliadin). The techn...

OBJECTIVE The protein Hwp1, expressed on the pathogenic phase of Candida albicans, presents sequence analogy with the gluten protein gliadin and is also a substrate for transglutaminase. This had led to the suggestion that C. albicans infection (CI) may be a triggering factor for Celiac disease (CeD) onset. We investigated cross-immune reactivity between CeD and CI. METHODS Serum IgG levels a...

Immunoglobulin A (IgA) deficiency occurs more frequently in patients with celiac disease (CD) than in the general population and can lead to false-negative results in the best serologic test for CD, endomysial IgA (EMA). To evaluate the impact of IgA deficiency on serologic detection of CD in a reference laboratory setting, IgA levels were measured in 510 consecutive serum specimens submitted f...