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Iervasi E, Strangio A, Greco L, Auricchio R, Saverino D. Circulating anti-hypothalamus antibodies in celiac patients: tissue transglutaminase friend or foe? Immunol Res 2023; 71:839-848. [PMID: 37221348 PMCID: PMC10667380 DOI: 10.1007/s12026-023-09394-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2023] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disease with inflammatory characteristics, having a condition of chronic malabsorption, affecting approximately 1% of the population at any age. In recent years, a concrete correlation between eating disorders and CD has emerged. Hypothalamus plays a central role in determining eating behaviour, regulating appetite and, consequently, food intake. One hundred and ten sera from celiac patients (40 active and 70 following a gluten-free diet) were tested for the presence of autoantibodies against primate hypothalamic periventricular neurons by immunofluorescence and by a home-made ELISA assay. In addition, ghrelin was measured by ELISA. As control, 45 blood serums from healthy age matched were analysed. Among active CD, all patients resulted positive for anti-hypothalamus autoantibodies and sera showed significantly higher levels of ghrelin. All of the free-gluten CD were negative for anti-hypothalamus autoantibodies and had low levels of ghrelin, as well as healthy controls. Of interest, anti-hypothalamic autoantibodies directly correlate with anti-tTG amounts and with mucosal damage. In addition, competition assays with recombinant tTG showed a drastically reduction of anti-hypothalamic serum reactivity. Finally, ghrelin levels are increased in CD patients and correlated with anti-tTG autoantibodies and anti-hypothalamus autoantibodies. This study demonstrates for the first time the presence of anti-hypothalamus antibodies and their correlation with the severity of the CD. It also allows us to hypothesize the role of tTG as a putative autoantigen expressed by hypothalamic neurons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erika Iervasi
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Genoa, Via De Toni, 14, 16132, Genova, Italy
- Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Largo Rosanna Benzi, 10, 16132, Genova, Italy
| | - Antonella Strangio
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Genoa, Via De Toni, 14, 16132, Genova, Italy
| | - Luigi Greco
- Department of Translational Medical Science, University of Naples Federico II, Corso Umberto I, 40, 80138, Napoli, Italy
| | - Renata Auricchio
- Department of Translational Medical Science, University of Naples Federico II, Corso Umberto I, 40, 80138, Napoli, Italy
- European Laboratory for Food-Induced disease (ELFID), University of Naples Federico II, Via Pansini, 5, 80131, Napoli, Italy
| | - Daniele Saverino
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Genoa, Via De Toni, 14, 16132, Genova, Italy.
- Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Largo Rosanna Benzi, 10, 16132, Genova, Italy.
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