The Role of Lymphotoxin in the Pathogenesis of Celiac Disease

Celiac disease (CD), a gluten-sensitive enteropathy, has an increased frequency of the serologically defined HLA class II antigens DR3 (90%), DR7 (50%), and DQw2 (95%). The use of Southern blot analysis with DQ and DR a and 13 probes has not further contributed to isolating the HLA-associated disease susceptibility genes. An alternative strategy is to look for variations in the structural patterns of class II-related gene products.