Tight junctions of jejunal surface and crypt cells in celiac disease: a freeze-fracture study

We studied mucosal biopsies of five children with celiac disease and five controls of similar age by freeze-fracture electron microscopy. Morphometric parameters of membrane structure (such as apical tight junctions, triple tight junctions, intramembrane particles) and of the brush border were obtained from a large number of micrographs. The quantitative comparison of celiac patients and control subjects showed similar values for the depth of tight junctions at the level of the crypts. At the surface level, the tight junctions of celiac patients showed reduced depth as well as a reduced number of strands. The number of intramembrane particles of microvillus membranes increases in control subjects and in celiac patients as the cells migrate from the crypts to the mucosal surface. The specimens from celiac disease patients possessed a reduced density of intramembrane particles. Differences in brush border morphology between celiac patients and control subjects were similar to earlier findings.