What is the link between gluten and cell death in celiac disease?

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that damages the small intestines. The disease is triggered by eating foods that contain gluten. Recently, a Stanford Medicine study has uncovered a new molecular link between gluten exposure and intestinal damage.

Stanford researchers used the intestinal tissue of celiac patients to create small, lab-grown clumps of cells—called organoids—to see how the different types of cells interact in those with the disorder. Through this, researchers discovered elevated levels of the molecule IL-7 in people with celiac disease. Moreover, when IL-7 activity is blocked, the immune reaction to gluten is eliminated.

When the organoids were exposed to a main component of gluten that triggers the disorder, researchers found several key features of the disease, such as immune activation and the killing of cells that make up the lining of the gut. By observing what occurs when the organoids interact with gluten, researchers can effectively reproduce and study how the disease progresses in the body. This offers a new method of developing and testing drugs in a laboratory setting.

“We’ve been working on organoids for nearly two decades,” Dr. Calvin Kuo, MD, PhD said. “We’ve used them to model cancer and infectious disease. Now we have complex systems with immune cells, and we believe this study is just the tip of the iceberg for using organoids to research many autoimmune disorders.”

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