ANTIBODY-DEPENDENT CELL-MEDIATED CYTOTOXICITY TO GLIADIN-COATED CELLSWITH SERA FROM CHILDREN WITH CELIAC-DISEASE

Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) has been suggeste d as a contributing immunological mechanism in the disease process of coeliac disease. In the present study, sera from coeliac children were examined for their capacity to mediate ADCC against gliadin-coated ta rget cells. The ADCC-mediating efficacy of sera were tested using mono cytes from healthy adults as effector cells and gliadin-coated erythro cytes from the same donor as targets. Using monocytes as effector cell s, sera from children with active coeliac disease (untreated or challe nged), demonstrated significantly higher ADCC-mediating capacity than sera from healthy and disease reference, as well as children with trea ted coeliac disease. A positive correlation was found between the ADCC -mediating capacity and serum IgG as well as IgA anti-gliadin antibody levels. The results suggest that an antibody-dependent monocyte/macro phage-induced cytotoxic reaction might be involved in the disease proc ess of coeliac disease.