Mechanisms in adverse reactions to food. The gastrointestinal tract.
Application of strict diagnostic criteria to celiac disease has led to the realization that there is a wide clinical spectrum within this disease. Normally there are immune reactions to dietary proteins, particularly secretory antibodies of IgA class, low titers of serum antibody and specific down-regulation of IgE and T cell reactivity (oral tolerance). From time to time, abnormal immunity to foods, either as inappropriately high titers of antibodies or qualitatively altered responses, produce disease. Lactase deficiency, with dose-related lactose and milk-intolerance, occurs in 50-90% of most populations. White, western Europeans are the exception.
Ferguson
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Dept. of Medicine, Univ. of Edinburgh, Western General Hospital, Scotland.
D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans