An accurate fluorometric method to measure the breakdown of gliadin and gliadin peptides.

A simple and accurate method is described to measure the breakdown of gliadin and gliadin peptides. It involves measuring the release of the predominant amino acids glutamine and glutamic acid using a fluorometric double enzyme assay and contains none of the problems normally associated with previously used techniques. The assay is highly accurate in that small concentrations of the free amino acids can be measured with no interference from the peptide bound amino acids. The assay system was used to study the breakdown of: whole gliadin, a peptic/tryptic digest of gliadin (PT gliadin), and a peptic/tryptic/chymotryptic digest of gliadin (PTC gliadin) using a rat intestinal brush border fraction. Both PT and PTC gliadin are hydrolysed at higher rates than is whole gliadin. Exhaustive hydrolysis shows that a brush border fraction can totally break down PT gliadin while an initial linear rate of breakdown is observed (up to 60 min).