Team:UC Davis/Celiac

=What is Celiac Disease?=

Description
Celiac disease is a form of autoimmune disorder that occurs inside the small intestines of about one out of every 133 Americans. Affected individuals cannot properly digest gliadin (a component of gluten), leading to immune responses that may include pain and/or vomiting.

What happens in the normal small intestines?
The small intestines are lined with numerous protrusions called "microvilli", which constitute the brush border membrane. In normal small intestines, small peptides and molecules like water diffuse through the brush border membrane and into the bloodstream. Larger molecules such as gliadin are also allowed to diffuse through, but only after they have been converted through a transcellular route.

What happens in celiac disease small intestines?
The brush border membrane in the small intestines of people suffering from celiac disease allows large molecules such as gliadin to go directly into the blood stream without routing them through the transcellular path. Once gliadin passes through, antigen-presenting cells recognize gliadin as a foreign object and attack. This immune response causes pain and other adverse side-effects.

Over time, these side-effects may also damage intestinal villi, which are important for absorbing nutrients. Lack of nutrients can lead to other illnesses such as autoimmune thyroid disease, autoimmune liver disease, and rheumatoid arthritis (diseases in which body immune system attacks healthy cells/tissues) (14).


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