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Tissue transglutaminase autoantibody detection in human saliva: a powerful method for celiac disease screening
Margherita Bonamico1, Mirella Ferri, Raffaella Nenna
1Institute of Paediatrics and Department of Clinical Science, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy. margherita.bonamico@uniroma1.it
Objective:
To test the possibility of detecting tissue transglutaminase autoantibodies (tTG-Abs) in saliva with a novel sensitive fluid-phase radioimmunoassay (RIA).
Study Design:
Paired saliva and serum samples from 39 patients with celiac disease (CD), at the first biopsy (Group 1: 28 females, mean age 11.5 +/- 11.1 years); 32 controls with a normal duodenal mucosa (Group 2: 18 females, mean age 8.1 +/- 3.6 years); and 32 healthy volunteers (Group 3: 21 females, mean age 31.7 +/- 9.8 years) were studied for tTG-Ab presence. Limit of positivity for salivary assay was calculated according to the 99th percentiles of Group 2 control children and was expressed as an autoantibody (Ab) index.
Results:
Salivary tTG-Abs were found in 97.4% of the patients with CD and in 100% of the corresponding serum samples. All Group 3 subjects were negative with both saliva and serum assays. A correlation between saliva and serum tTG-Ab titers was found (r=0.826, P=.0014).
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates that it is possible to detect salivary tTG-Abs in CD with a non-invasive, simple to perform, reproducible and sensitive method.
