Celiac Disease – Causes of Celiac Disease

                                                                                         

Celiac disease is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate a protein called gluten, found in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten is found mainly in foods but may also be found in products we use every day, such as stamp and envelope adhesive, medicines, and vitamins.

Celiac disease affects people differently. Symptoms may occur in the digestive system, or in other parts of the body. For example, one person might have diarrhea and abdominal pain, while another person may be irritable or depressed. In fact, irritability is one of the most common symptoms in children. Eventually, decreased absorption of nutrients (malabsorption) can cause vitamin deficiencies that deprive your brain, peripheral nervous system, bones, liver and other organs of vital nourishment, which can lead to other illnesses. The decreased nutrient absorption that occurs in celiac disease is especially serious in children, who need proper nutrition to develop and grow.

Celiac Disease (CD) is unique in that a specific food component, gluten, has been identified as the trigger. Gluten is the common name for the offending proteins in specific cereal grains that are harmful to persons with celiac disease. These proteins are found in all forms of wheat (including durum, semolina, spelt, kamut, einkorn, and faro), and related grains: rye, barley, and triticale and must be eliminated.

Causes of Celiac Disease

The exact cause of celiac disease is unknown, but it's often inherited. If someone in your immediate family has it, chances are 5 percent to 15 percent that you may as well. It can occur at any age, although problems don't appear until gluten is introduced into the diet.

Celiac disease affects 1 of every 133 people in the United States and results from environmental factors and a genetic predisposition, but the exact mechanism is unknown. A strong association exists between the disease and two human leukocyte antigen haplotypes, DR3 and DQw2. It may also be autoimmune in nature.

Celiac disease runs in families. First degree relatives of individuals with celiac disease may or may not manifest symptoms of the disease. Predisposition to gluten sensitivity has been mapped to the major histocompatibility (MHC) D region on chromosome 6. The most important HLA haplotype is DQw2 which is often in linkage with DR3. Other important HLA haplotypes identified are DR7 and DPB 1, 3, 4.1 and 4.2.

Some people have an allergy to gluten and must go on a gluten-free diet. In their case, the gluten damages the mucosa of the small intestine in a way that a normal digestion becomes impossible. After avoiding gluten completely, the intestine will return to functioning normally. People with celiac disease have a hereditary, genetic predisposition to autoimmune reaction to gluten in their digestive system and must avoid it entirely.

Sometimes a person who has celiac disease may not show any symptoms until he or she goes through an emotionally or physically stressful event, such as going away to college, illness, or an injury or pregnancy.

Barley and rye contain gliadin-like proteins and can cause celiac disease in genetically-predisposed individuals. Oats also contain gliadin-like proteins, but unlike barley and rye, the gliadin-like proteins in oats cause inflammation weakly and in only a few individuals who are predisposed to develop celiac disease. Rice and corn do not cause celiac disease because they do not contain gliadin-like proteins.

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