Vitiligo and autoantibodies of celiac disease

Vitiligo is an acquired, idiopathic disorder characterized by circumscribed depigmented macules and patches. The exact etiology and pathogenesis of vitiligo is not clear. Many theories have been presented regarding this subject among them aautoimmune theory is the most important one. The association of vitiligo with other autoimmune disorders has been reported, but the relationship between vitiligo and celiac disease is controversial. The aim of this study was to study the frequency of celiac autoantibodies in a group of vitiligo patients compared with control.

This was a cross sectional case control study that involved 128 individuals, 64 vitiligo patients and 64 individuals as control group. The means age of participants was 30.3 ± 14.4 years. IgA anti Endomysial antibody and IgA anti-glutaminase antibody were measured by ELISA method in the serum of all participants. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 15.

The serum of two vitiligo patients (3.1%) was positive for antibodies. All control groups were seronegative for these antibodies (P < 0.05). There was no significant effect of sex and job on seropositivity.

There may be a relationship between celiac disease and vitiligo. This may indicate a common basic autoimmune mechanism that is an explanation for few case reports that gluten free diets were effective in the treatment of vitiligo patients. Both T test and exact fisher test showed no effect of age, sex and job on seropositivity of these patients (P = 0.56 and P = 0.74, respectively).