Celiac disease: a disorder emerging from antiquity, its evolving classification and risk, and potential new treatment paradigms.

ABSTRACT: Celiac disease is a chronic genetically based gluten-sensitive immune-mediated enteropathic process primarily affecting the small intestinal mucosa. The disorder classically presents with diarrhea and weight loss; however, more recently, it has been characterized by subclinical occult or latent disease associated with few or no intestinal symptoms. Diagnosis depends on the detection of typical histopathological biopsy changes followed by a gluten-free diet response. A broad range of clinical disorders may mimic celiac disease, along with a wide range of drugs and other therapeutic agents. Recent and intriguing archeological data, largely from the Gobleki Tepe region of the Fertile Crescent, indicate that celiac disease probably emerged as humans transitioned from hunter-gatherer groups to

SUBMITTER: Freeman HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4282854 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature