The molecular basis of celiac disease.
Celiac disease is caused by inflammatory, gluten specific T cell responses in the small intestine. Invariably such responses are HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8 restricted, providing an explanation for the strong association between celiac disease and these HLA-class II alleles. It is now clear that some native gluten sequences can bind to HLA-DQ2/8 and induce T cell responses. In addition, modification of gluten peptides by the enzyme tissue transglutaminase results in high affinity HLA-DQ2/8 binding peptides that can induce T cell responses. Thus, gluten molecules contain a large number of immunogenic peptides and this is likely to play an important role in the breaking of oral tolerance to gluten.
Koning
Frits
F
Department of Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands. f.koning@lumc.nl
D000818:Animals; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000378:metabolism*; D005983:Glutens / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology*; D011503:Transglutaminases / Q000378:metabolism
D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens; D010455:Peptides; D005983:Glutens; D011503:Transglutaminases