Abstract
Celiac disease (CD) is a chronic immune-mediated enteropathy triggered by exposure to dietary gluten in genetically predisposed individuals. In contrast, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional gastrointestinal disorder affecting the large intestine, without an autoimmune component. Here, we evaluated the prevalence of IgA and IgG antibodies to maize zeins (AZA) in patients with CD and IBS. Using an in-house ELISA assay, the IgA and IgG anti-zein antibodies in the serum of 37 newly diagnosed CD (16 biopsy proved and 21 serological diagnosis) and 375 IBS patients or 302 healthy control (HC) subjects were measured. Elevated levels of IgA AZA were found in CD patients compared with IBS patients (p < 0.01) and HC (p < 0.05). CD patients had the highest prevalence (35.1%), followed by IBS (4.3%) and HCs (2.3%) (p < 0.0001). IgG AZA antibodies were not found in any CD patients, IBS patients, or HC subjects. A significant positive correlation was found between IgA AZA with IgA anti-gliadin (AGA, r = 0.34, p < 0.01) and IgA anti-deaminated gliadin peptides (DGP, r = 0.42, p < 0.001) in the celiac disease group. Taken together, our results show for the first time a higher prevalence of AZA IgA antibodies in newly diagnosed CD patients than in IBS patients, confirming a biased immune response to other gliadin-related prolamins such as maize zeins in genetically susceptible individuals.
Highlights
Celiac disease (CD) is a systemic autoimmune disorder that not exclusively affects the small intestine [1,2,3,4] in genetically susceptible individuals (HLA DQ2 and/or DQ8 haplotypes)
While gliadin, the major component of wheat gluten, is the most immunogenic prolamin in wheat and widely studied in terms of CD and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) immunopathology and seroprevalence studies, little is known about the immune response and the prevalence of specific antibodies to prolamins in maize, a very important and a common dietary cereal in Latin American countries, which require further investigation regarding their potential as food immunogenic antigens in some bowel inflammatory disorders
We recruited a total of 37 subjects with CD, 375 subjects with IBS, and 302 healthy controls, and all the subjects were evaluated for anti-zein antibodies (AZA)
Summary
Celiac disease (CD) is a systemic autoimmune disorder that not exclusively affects the small intestine [1,2,3,4] in genetically susceptible individuals (HLA DQ2 and/or DQ8 haplotypes). CD is caused by an abnormal intestinal immune response to proline- and glutamine-rich gluten proteins from the triticeae tribe of the Gramineae family (wheat, rye, and barley) [1]. Oats can induce some clinical manifestations in a small fraction of CD patients, even though they are distantly related to wheat [5,6]. Maize, sorghum, and millet are still more distantly and less related cereals to wheat, and they have been considered nontoxic to CD patients [7]; recent studies seem to show that some of these cereals such as maize, traditionally considered safe for celiac patients, could activate the immune response in some celiac patients [8]. CD affects about 0.59% of the Mexican population, a figure which is similar to data reported for other populations in the American continent [9,10]
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