Phenotypical characterization of the peripheral blood T cells in patients with celiac disease: does it differentiate suspicious celiac disease cases?

AIM: The present study aimed to study the immunological changes seen in the intestinal epithelium of the celiac patients could also be detected in the peripheral blood lymphocyte populations. BACKGROUND: Celiac disease (CD) is a small bowel enteropathy caused by permanent wheat gluten intolerance. One of the earliest signs of CD is an increase in the numbers of the intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (iIEL). PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this case-control study, totally 13 untreated subjects with acceptable criteria for CD without any complication and 16 healthy subjects without any positive criteria for CD were selected. Peripheral blood T cells were analyzed by two-color flow cytometry in both groups. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 33.6 ± 3.4 years and two patients had Marsh IIIB, five patients had Marsh IIIA and six patients had Marsh II histology class. The mean percentages of the TCR(+) T cells in the patients were significantly higher than the controls (p=0.015). However, the mean percentages of the αβTCR(+ )T cells were significantly lower in the untreated patients than the controls (p=0.025). There were no significant difference between the mean percentages of lymphocytes expressing the CD3, CD4 and CD8 molecules in the patients and the controls. CONCLUSION: The change in the percentages of the peripheral blood T cells expressing the γδTCR and αβTCR in the celiac patients could be used in conjunction with the other serological markers to identify new CD cases.