In vitro pathogenetic studies of coeliac disease. Effects of protein digests on coeliac intestinal biopsy specimens maintained in culture for 48 hours.

Jos, J., Lenoir, G., de Ritis, G. & Rey, J. In vitro pathogenetic studies of coeliac disease. Effects of protein digests on coeliac intestinal biopsy specimens maintained in culture for 48 hours. Scand. J. Gastroent. 1975, 10, 121-128. Intestinal biopsies from controls and from children with treated or untreated coeliac disease were cultured for 48 hours in the presence or absence of various peptic-tryptic (P.T.) or peptic-tryptic-chymotryptic (P.T.C.) digests of gliadin and casein, using a modified organ culture method. In flat biopsy specimens obtained from children with active coeliac disease and maintained in culture in the presence of P.T. or P.T.C. digests of gliadin, whether autoclaved or not, a cytotoxic effect was obvious; but this effect was in part unspecific, since P.T. digests of casein were also slightly noxious in such experimental conditions. Biopsies from controls or from children with coeliac disease in remission were not affected by the presence in culture medium of casein or gliadin digests, whereas coeliac biopsies, also obtained from patients in remission but after gluten challenge, were specifically injured during culture with gliadin peptides. On the other hand, a thorough P.T.C. hydrolysis of gliadin abolished all its in vitro noxious effects, suggesting that its toxicity is related to a relatively large peptide.