Celiac.com 03/26/2009 - The recent discovery that people with celiac disease harbor antibodies  that are specific for deamidated gliadin peptides (DGP), which are the product of tTG binding to gliadin peptides, offers a chance to examine the connection between the production of anti-tTG IgA and the antibodies against DGP in celiac patients.

A group of researchers led by Doctors Marietta, Rashtak, and Murray from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN recently set out to make just such an examination, and a report on their study appears in the February issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Their data show that the blood level of anti-tTG IgA shares a significant connection with the blood level of anti-DGP of both the IgG and IgA isotypes in people with untreated celiac disease. The same data showed only a weak connection between the production of anti-tTG IgG and anti-DGP IgG/IgA.

Moreover, the results show that the immune response by T and B cells to deamidated gliadin differs at the most basic level from the immune response by T and B cells to tissue transglutaminase in celiac patients.

Their results also indicate, however, that the immune responses against deamidated gliadin and tTG are substantially connected, and thereby offer support for the hapten-carrier theory for the origin of anti-tTG IgA.

World Journal of Gastroenterology; February, 2009.

As always, Celiac.com welcomes your comments (see below).