[krismuse]

What is the deal with transglutaminase? I understand (sorta) how it plays into the testing, but should I be avoiding it in foods? I've seen some sources that say it's bad for celiacs, and some that think it might help us. It's obviously used rather prevalently these days as "meat glue" in chicken nuggets, crab meat, hot dogs, etc. But I'm not seeing it on the lists of ingredients to avoid - maybe because it's not required to be listed on labels? I'm really in a quandary on this. I hope I'm not repeating an old topic, but I'm new here so please be patient with me.

[Jestgar]

'transglutaminase' identifies an enzyme, like the word 'pin' identifies an attaching device. The word that comes before, like tissue transglutaminase, is the important part, (like safety pin, or straight pin).

[krismuse]

Jestgar, on 10 March 2010 - 10:40 AM, said:

'transglutaminase' identifies an enzyme, like the word 'pin' identifies an attaching device. The word that comes before, like tissue transglutaminase, is the important part, (like safety pin, or straight pin).

If my body is anti-tissue transglutaminase, is it also anti-culinary transglutaminase (the stuff that's being added to foods), since they come from the same family?

Has anyone seen any research on that?

[Jestgar]

They are not the same family. A Honda is not a Ford, but they are both cars.

They are also not from human, AND, your gut is not supposed to allow food into your bloodstream, so a properly function intestine will deal with any proteins it's given

[krismuse]

I think I found what I needed, in case anyone else is wondering. Of course, this is from 2007-08, so I don't know if more recent studies may contradict this.

"Abstract

Celiac disease (celiac disease) is a permanent intolerance to gluten. In celiac disease patients, gluten peptides cause an inflammation in the small intestine leading to tissue damage. Tissue transglutaminase (tTG) is an enzyme involved in the repair of damaged tissue by crosslinking of extracellular matrix proteins. Under certain conditions, tTG can deamidate glutamine into glutamic acid. Compared to native gluten, deamidated gluten elicits a more powerful inflammatory response. To improve the quality and texture of food products microbial transglutaminases (mTG) are used in the food industry.

In this study, we investigated whether deamidation of gluten by mTG enhances the immunogenic nature of gluten. We found that mTG have a broader substrate specificity than tTG and deamidate both synthetic and natural gluten peptides which were recognized by gluten-specific T cells.

Therefore mTG can enhance the immunogenicity of gluten and should not be used in food products intended for consumption by celiac disease patients." (emphasis mine)


Article Link

[Jestgar]

very cool. Here's another that suggests that it may be person specific:

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/18193828


and another that suggests age:

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/19290628

Maybe that's why most people feel better not eating processed food....