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Is a life-long gluten-free diet for patients with celiac disease successful?

Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology & Hepatology volume 2, pages 290–291 (2005)Cite this article

Celiac disease is an interesting and important condition for both clinicians and researchers. Clinicians deal with the daily problems of this chronic and extremely common disease, which is clinically polymorphous and consequently still widely underdiagnosed. Patients with celiac disease are also burdened with the risk of associated autoimmune diseases and malignancy, accounting for an increase in mortality rate if the condition is not promptly diagnosed and treated. Researchers, on the other hand, are faced with a disorder that represents a naturally occurring and probably unique model of autoimmune disease. Celiac disease is in fact closely linked to the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system. The functional role of HLA molecules is certainly clearer in celiac disease than in other diseases, the molecular structure of the external triggers (gluten and related prolamins) is known, an autoantigen (tissue transglutaminase 2) capable of increasing the immunogenicity and perhaps the toxicity of gluten has been identified, and the effector mechanisms that lead to the development of intestinal lesions have been studied fairly extensively.

The known etiology of celiac disease makes it an ideal condition for the study of new therapeutic strategies aimed at limiting mucosal inflammation and autoimmunity. The treatment of celiac disease, however, is still based on the genial intuition, more than 50 years ago, of Dutch pediatrician Willem-Karel Dicke who pioneered the gluten-free diet. The undisputed efficacy of this simple kind of treatment has to date been unanimously accepted: countless results demonstrate the efficacy of a gluten-free diet for patients with celiac disease in the regression of intestinal lesions, the control of symptoms and the prevention of associated autoimmune diseases and complications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. researcher IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, University of Pavia, Italy

    Rachele Ciccocioppo

  2. Professor at the IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, University of Pavia, Italy

    Gino Roberto Corazza

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  1. Rachele Ciccocioppo
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  2. Gino Roberto Corazza
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Correspondence to Gino Roberto Corazza.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Glossary

HUMAN LEUKOCYTE ANTIGEN CLASS II DQ MOLECULES (HLA-DQ)

A distinct highly polymorphic subset of human leukocyte antigen class II molecules, some DQ alleles have been associated with an increased risk for several autoimmune diseases

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Ciccocioppo, R., Corazza, G. Is a life-long gluten-free diet for patients with celiac disease successful?. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 2, 290–291 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpgasthep0212

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