Intestinal trehalase activity in a UK population: establishing a normal range and the effect of disease

Trehalose is a disaccharide, the main dietary source being mushrooms. It ha s been approved as an additive in the preparation of dried food. Isolated i ntestinal trehalase deficiency is found in 8 % of Greenlanders, but is rare elsewhere. The normal range of trehalase activity and the incidence of iso lated trehalase deficiency in the UK have not been reported. Patients (n 40 0) were investigated for suspected malabsorption. Endoscopic distal duodena l biopsies were taken for histological assessment and maltase, sucrase, lac tase and trehalase estimation. Disaccharidase activities were determined by Dahlqvist's technique (). Most patients (n 369) had normal duodenal histol ogy. In these, square root transformation of trehalase activity produced a normal distribution. The normal range (mean +/- 2 sd) was 4.79-37.12 U/g pr otein. One patient had an isolated borderline trehalase deficiency. The thi rty-one patients with villous atrophy had significantly reduced disaccharid ase activities. With ingestion of a gluten-free diet, maltase, sucrase and trehalase activities recovered to normal in most patients, whereas lactase activity did not. The normal range and very low incidence of isolated enzym e deficiency is comparable with that described in populations from the USA and mainland Europe. Activity is significantly reduced in untreated coeliac disease and recovers with treatment with a gluten-free diet. There is no p lace for routine determination of trehalase activity in the UK population a nd there should be no concern over the introduction of trehalose-containing dried foods.