Gluten-dependent diabetes-related and thyroid-related autoantibodies in patients with celiac disease

Patients with celiac disease are at high risk of having autoimmune disorder s. Moreover, untreated patients with celiac disease have been found to have a higher than expected prevalence of organ-specific autoantibodies. In a p rospective study of 90 patients with celiac disease, we found that the prev alence of diabetes and thyroid-related serum antibodies was 11.1% and 14.4% , respectively. Like antiendomysium autoantibodies, these organ-specific an tibodies seem to be gluten-dependent and tend to disappear during a gluten- free diet.