Intestinal antitransglutaminase antibodies to discover genetic gluten intolerance

Abstract

Genetic gluten intolerance is a multifactorial condition characterized by the intestinal synthesis of antitransglutaminase antibodies (anti-tTG) which might represent an early stage of this intolerance in absence of both intestinal damage and serum anti-tTG. The double immunofluorescence staining (IF) is able to point out these anti-tTG antibodies directly on intestinal biopsy. Her we describe a prospective study in which patients were analysed for genetic predisposition (HLA DQ2-DQ8) and serum anti-tTG and were monitored for clinical conditions and serum anti-tTG concentration during gluten free diet (GFD) or gluten containing diet (GCD). Our results demonstrate that the measurement of intestinal anti-tTG is a useful screening procedure to identify patients with genetic predisposition not fullfilling the current diagnostic criteria.