Celiac Disease Case Study

Words: 348
Pages: 2

1) Briefly describe Celiac Disease? Celiac Disease is an inflammatory disorder of the small intestine. The harmful immune response to gluten can cause damage to the small intestine. Gluten can be found in a variety of grains and other non-food items such as lip balms as well as in the glue found on envelopes and stamps.

a. What are the symptoms?
The symptoms of Celiac Disease can vary from person to person. Some people may experience gastrointestinal problems like abdominal pain and diarrhea. Some people can even experience emotional distress such as irritability, which is actually a common symptom in children.

b. What is thought to be the underlying cause of disease?
Celiac Disease is thought to be caused by an enzyme called
…show more content…
How is it treated?
Treatment for Celiac Disease is treated by changing daily eating habits in favor of a gluten-free diet.

2) What is an autoantibody? What role is the autoantibody playing in disease? An autoantibody is an antibody that is produced by the tissues. When the autoantibodies are transglutaminase specific, they are the official mark of Celiac Disease. The production of these antibodies depend on their exposure to dietary gluten proteins.

3) In your own words, describe the major hypothesis of the paper. What information led the authors to propose this hypothesis? Do their data / conclusions support it? The major hypothesis of the paper was to find out if B-cells that expressed IgD using
IGHV5-51, when favorably activated, could help to determine the cause of the low number of somatic mutations, as well as the overrepresentation of IGHV5-51 among
TG2-specific plasma cells within a celiac lesion. The gluten peptide uptake by
TG2-reactive B cells straight to peptide deamidation is necessary for the activation of gluten-reactive T-cells. The gluten-reactive T-cells provides a link between gluten deamination, T-cell activation and the production of TG2-specific