Immunoglobulin allotypes and the immune response to wheat gliadin in a Finnish population with celiac disease.

Several immunoglobulin allotypes were determined for 42 Finnish children with celiac disease (CD) and for 42 normal controls. The CD patients had been previously HLA typed; all but 2 were positive for HLA B8, DR3 or both. The incidence of HLA B8, DR3 and DR7 was found to be significantly higher in patients than in a control group. No significant association was found between any of the immunoglobulin allotypes and CD either when patients were grouped as a whole or when grouped according to sex. In addition, no association was found between levels of antigliadin antibody and the G2m(23) allotypic marker. This latter finding is in sharp contrast with the report of a significant association in American Caucasians between G2m(23) and the level of antigliadin antibodies by Weiss et al. [J. clin. Invest. 72: 96-101, 1983].