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Celiac,com 10/08/2010 - Many people are familiar with probiotics, such as acidophilus, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus case, which promote beneficial gut bacteria, and are commonly found in yogurt, kefir and other fermented milk products. But how many of us have heard of polysaccharides, which are a particular kind of carbohydrate made up of of a number of monosaccharides joined together by something called glycosidic bonds. On a simpler note, polysaccharides are also known as pre-biotics, because they serve as fuel for probiotic bacteria, and help to promote healthy ratios of beneficial bacteria to non-beneficial bacteria in the gut. It is well-known among scientists that diet has a major influence on the health and diversity of gut microbiota. People with celiac disease must follow a gluten-free diet in order to avoid associated damage and health disorders. When people with celiac disease follow a gluten-free diet, their celiac symptoms disappear and their gut begins to heal itself from the damage. The health effects of the diet for people with celiac disease are overwhelmingly positive. However, there is some evidence that by eliminating gluten, people with celiac disease are making themselves susceptible to a plunge in beneficial gut bacteria, and an elevated ratio of bad-to-good gut bacteria. This may have immune-system implications for those people. To test this hypothesis, a team of scientists recently conducted a preliminary study to determine if a gluten-free diet alone could change the make-up and immune properties of gut microbiota. The team included G. De Palma, I. Nadal, M. C. Collado, and Y. Sanz. Their full results appear in theSeptember, 2009 issue of the British Journal of Nutrition. To briefly summarize their study, the team enrolled ten healthy individuals without celiac disease, averaging just over 30 years of age. They put these people on a gluten-free diet for a month. Subsequent analysis of fecal microbiota and dietary intake showed a decrease in healthy gut bacteria, coupled with an increase of unhealthy bacteria that corresponded with reduced intake of polysaccharides after following the gluten-free diet. Another healthy control group that ate a diet that contained gluten, and thus provided polysaccharides. In addition representing an adversely change in gut microbiota, the samples taken while the individuals followed a gluten-free diet also exerted reduced immune stimulatory effects on peripheral blood mononuclear cells than those of subjects on a regular gluten-containing, polysaccharide-rich diet. Should these findings be confirmed by subsequent studies, the results could call attention to a more comprehensive approach to proper dietary intake in people with celiac disease, including dietary counseling, and possible supplementation of the diet with polysaccharides. Source: Br J Nutr. 2009 Oct;102(8):1154-60.

Celiac.com 06/30/2010 - Presently, the only proven treatment for celiac disease is a lifelong gluten-free diet. As part of a gluten-free diet, people with celiac disease are encouraged to avoid consuming foods containing rye, along with avoiding wheat and barley. However, there is surprisingly little evidence to document the adverse effects of rye in cases of celiac disease. To address this deficiency, a team of clinicians set out to determine conclusively whether rye should be excluded from the celiac diet. The team included S. M. Stenman, K. Lindfors, J. I. Venäläinen, A. Hautala, P. T. Männistö, J. A. Garcia-Horsman, A. Kaukovirta-Norja, S. Auriola, T. Mauriala, M. Mäki, and K. Kaukinen They are affiliated variously with the Department of Pediatrics, and the Pediatric Research Center of the Medical School University of Tampere, the Department of Gastroenterology and Alimentary Tract Surgery at Tampere University Hospital, the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Kuopio, the Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, the Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Helsinki, and Technical Research Centre of Finland. The goal of the team was to determine whether rye secalin triggers toxic reactions in vitro in intestinal epithelial cell models to the same degree as wheat gliadin. Moreover, they examined whether the harmful effects of secalin can be reduced by germinating cereal enzymes from oat, wheat and barley to hydrolyze secalin into short fragments as a pretreatment. The data showed that secalin did trigger toxic reactions in intestinal Caco-2 epithelial cells in a similar manner to gliadin. Secalin triggered epithelial cell layer permeability, tight junctional protein occludin and ZO-1 distortion, and actin reorganization. High-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectroscopy (HPLC-MS), showed that germinating barley enzymes best degraded the secalin and gliadin peptides. Further in vitro analysis showed that germinating barley enzyme pretreatment ameliorated all toxic secalin-triggered reactions. From these results, the team concludes that germinating enzymes from barley offer efficient degradation of rye secalin. In future, these enzymes might be utilized as a novel medical treatment for celiac disease or in food processing in order to develop high-quality celiac-safe food products. Such enzyme treatments might pave the way for either new treatments for celiac disease, or, new methods of processing rye for production of new, celiac-safe foods. SOURCE: Clinical & Experimental Immunology DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2249.2010.04119.x