Research on Celiac Disease

[Lilja]

Hi,

This article is a Norwegian study, who claim that they have solved the Celiac mystery.

http://www.med.uio.no/klinmed/forskning ... liaki.html

"The T-cells believe that gluten is a virus or a bacteria".

Well, after having browsed around on the homepage of University of Oslo and what research they work on, I discovered that MC was totally absent, so I sent an e-mail to the head of the department of research of intestinal diseases, and asked why they do not prioritize to do research on MC.

I don't expect an answer, and I know that this is a shot in the dark, but if I don't raise the question, no one else will. And the research community should be reminded of the existence and all the open questions about MC. Since research is funded by the Government only - and our tax money - I think I have the right to raise the question :-)


Lilia

[tex]

"The T-cells believe that gluten is a virus or a bacteria".

To be honest, I didn't realize that the cause of celiac disease was a mystery. They seem to be trying to reinvent the wheel.

Celiac disease causes incomplete digestion, resulting in short-chain amino acid peptides and increased intestinal permeability, and this allows some of those peptides to enter the bloodstream. When foreign items enter the bloodstream, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there will be an immune system reaction. There's nothing mysterious about it.

Contrary to that quote, the immune system does not "believe" that the peptides are a virus or a bacterium — the immune system only knows that the peptides should not be in the bloodstream, and so it begins to try to destroy them, before they get into the bloodstream. The mystery here is why researchers are still confused about the process.

Thanks for the link.

Tex