Antibodies to gliadin in serum of normals, coeliac patients and schizophrenics

Following on from our interest in coeliac disease we have been investigating α-gliadin in patients suffering from this disease. During the last months we have elaborated a method of measuring quantitatively the antibodies coeliac patients make in their serum against gliadin, a group of proteins from wheat. We wanted to know if gliadin passes the intestinal wall of coeliac patients in greater quantity than in normals and stimulates antibody production. We used the Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA) as developed by Engvall and Perlman in Sweden. The technique is illustrated in Figure 1. The alkaline phosphatase activity measured is proportional to the amount of antibody in the serum.