Description
Celiac disease is a chronic gastrointestinal disease and can be associated with other autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) and diabetes mellitus.
Studies have shown that tissue transglutaminase (tTG) is the predominant, if not the sole, endomysial autoantigen characteristic for gluten intolerance. Because the prevalence of associated autoimmune diseases in most cases is high, it is advisable to look for autoantibodies against tissue transglutaminase (tTG) as marker for Celiac disease.
The tissue transglutaminase as well as the epidermal transglutaminase have been proven to be linked to gluten intolerance.
Studies have also shown that an anti-tTG ELISA is a reliable method to indicate a coexisting diagnosis of Celiac Disease in patients with Sjogren‘s syndrome.