celiac patients must strictly stay away from most grains, otherwise the immune system attacks its own intestines.
From: Scientific American, May 2010
When the English physician Samuel Gee end of the 19th Century, children with a chronic digestive disorder toasted bread slices as prescribed diet, he had no idea how much he hurt them with it. Because it would take many decades before researchers realized that just a grain component, the protein gluten, for its painful and sometimes deadly symptoms was responsible. Grow
Since man cereals, there are probably cases of celiac disease - an autoimmune disease that destroys the intestines and caused by eating gluten. For those affected, the diagnosis changed the whole life: To avoid gluten, they must give up all products that contain only traces of the most popular cereals. Alessio Fasano, a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore reported in the May issue of "Scientific American" from the new findings about the causes and mechanisms of the disease, scientists have begun to understand only in the last twenty years.
go Today's assume that celiac disease is caused by three factors: first, by the gluten as a stimulus from outside, second, by abnormally permeable intestinal wall of the affected and thirdly, the excessive reaction of the immune system. Already if one of these factors is suppressed, should stop the symptoms. So far the only known celiac autoimmune disease characterized by administration or removal of an environmental component - in this case gluten - in fact, can virtually switch on and off. This makes it very interesting as a model for other autoimmune diseases.
Unlike other gluten proteins in the intestine is reduced only partially. Since the intestinal mucosa of celiac patients themselves can pass large molecule residues on sensitive immune system recognizes them as foreign and attacked them. The resulting chronic inflammation gradually damage the villi of the small intestine, with serious consequences: By the damaged intestinal wall, the body can not absorb enough nutrients. Perhaps a "leaky" intestinal mucosa also plays in other autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes or multiple sclerosis is crucial.
Although celiac disease has genetic causes, must make the suffering felt not just in childhood. If in the course of life changed the composition of bacterial colonization in the intestine, it can remove the gluten tolerance and disease break out suddenly. However, there are also reasons for hope: Selected intestinal microbes could be used to treat them or even protect against the disease. Even more innovative treatment approaches, Alessio Fasano describes the could improve the life of celiac patients in the future.
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