Celiac Disease: Eating Away at You?

The immune system learns to recognize the antigens from the body’s own cells as “self” and also to tolerate the many “nonself” tags on beneficial intestinal microbes and food particles. But in some people, the immune cells misread the antigens attached to HLA, mistaking, say, pollen for a cold virus or gluten for a toxin. Then they send out a faulty danger signal that makes their body’s own cells look suspicious, summoning other immune cells to attack the body’s tissue.

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Early effects of gliadin on enterocyte intracellular signalling involved in intestinal barrier function

"Despite the progress made in understanding the immunological aspects of the pathogenesis of coeliac disease (CD), the early steps that allow gliadin to cross the intestinal barrier are still largely unknown. The aim of this study was to establish whether gliadin activates a zonulin dependent enterocyte intracellular signalling pathway(s) leading to increased intestinal permeability."

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Zonulin, Vitamin, and Leaky Gut

" in both Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, vitamin D deficiency was independently associated with having increased disease activity scores compared to those with normal levels of Vitamin D. Vitamin D deficient CD patients, but not UC patients, had worse quality of life when compared to patients who were not Vitamin D deficient."

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