Bio-physical characteristics of gastrointestinal mucosa of celiac patients: comparison with control subjects and effect of gluten free diet-

BMC Gastroenterology

Research Article

Alberto Lanzini¹  Francesco Lanzarotto¹  Stefania Bertolazzi¹  Chiara Ricci¹  Barbara Zanini¹  Vincenzo Villanacci² 

[1] Gastroenterology Unit: Spedali Civili and University., Piazzale Spedali Civili 1., 25123, Brescia., Italy;Histopathology: Spedali Civili and University., Piazzale Spedali Civili 1., 25123, Brescia., Italy;

关键词: Contact Angle;    Celiac Disease;    Dextran Sodium Sulphate;    Intestinal Permeability;    Gluten Free Diet;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-230X-11-119

 received in 2011-05-23, accepted in 2011-11-07,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIntestinal mucosa is leaky in celiac disease (CD), and this alteration may involve changes in hydrophobicity of the mucus surface barrier in addition to alteration of the epithelial barrier. The aims of our study were i) to compare duodenal hydrophobicity as an index of mucus barrier integrity in CD patients studied before (n = 38) and during gluten- free diet (GFD, n = 68), and in control subjects (n = 90), and ii) to check for regional differences of hydrophobicity in the gastro-intestinal tract.MethodsHydrophobicity was assessed by measurement of contact angle (CA) (Rame Hart 100/10 goniometer) generated by a drop of water placed on intestinal mucosal biopsies.ResultsCA (mean ± SD) of distal duodenum was significantly lower in CD patients (56° ± 10°)) than in control subjects (69° ± 9°, p < 0.0001), and persisted abnormal in patients studied during gluten free diet (56° ± 9°; p < 0.005). CA was significantly higher (62° ± 9°) in histologically normal duodenal biopsies than in biopsies with Marsh 1-2 (58° ± 10°; p < 0.02) and Marsh 3 lesions (57° ± 10°; p < 0.02) in pooled results of all patients and controls studied. The order of hydrofobicity along the gastrointestinal tract in control subjects follows the pattern: gastric antrum > corpus > rectum > duodenum > oesophagus > ileum.ConclusionsWe conclude that the hydrophobicity of duodenal mucous layer is reduced in CD patients, and that the resulting decreased capacity to repel luminal contents may contribute to the increased intestinal permeability of CD. This alteration mirrors the severity of the mucosal lesions and is not completely reverted by gluten-free diet. Intestinal hydrophobicity exhibits regional differences in the human intestinal tract.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Bertolazzi et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.