ELISA testing of patients with possible Celiac disease.

Celiac disease is one of the most common autoimmune diseases, with a prevalence ranging between 1-3% in the general population.

This disease is characterized by a specific serological and histological profile that appears in genetically predisposed patients after ingestion of gluten. In short, the ingestion of gluten and its degradation into smaller fragments (gliadin) in the intestinal lumen triggers a series of events that lead to the apoptosis of the intestinal cells, thereby releasing cell content and increasing intestinal permeability.

Among the molecules that are released, tissue transglutaminase (tTG) plays an especially important role, as it binds to gliadin and forms a composite that will be detected by the cells of the adaptive immune system, giving rise to the production of anti- tTG.

Traditionally, the diagnosis of celiac disease passed through the performance of a biopsy of the mucosa of the duodenum. However, the degree of invasiveness of this technique made it necessary to develop new forms of diagnosis, among which are serological tests.

Serological tests as a previous diagnosis.

Currently, these serological tests are the first to be used when celiac disease is suspected, followed by the confirmation given by an intestinal biopsy. Among the antibodies detected by serology are anti-tTG antibodies.

Thus, the diagnosis of anti-tTG antibodies in serum consists of two steps:

• Obtaining the serum
• Specific detection of said antibodies by the ELISA method (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay)

To obtain the serum, a blood sample, in a 5 ml blood collection tube must be taken, without anticoagulant and centrifuged at 1,500 G for 15 minutes.

After centrifugation, the sample is divided into two fractions.

The upper fraction, clear and transparent in appearance, corresponds to blood serum, which is transferred to another tube to start the immunoassay.

The determination of anti-tTG antibodies by ELISA has proven to be an effective tool in the diagnosis of patients with Celiac Disease.

Prior to performing the immunoassay, patient serum must be isolated using a simple centrifugation step for which you can count with our range of general applications centrifuges.