Naturally developing antibodies to wheat gliadin fractions and to other cereal antigens in rabbits, rats and guinea pigs on normal laboratory diets.

Rabbits, rats and guinea pigs on normal laboratory diets were examined for gliadin and other cereal antibodies comparable to those found in the sera of human coeliac patients. Many of the rabbits had very high levels of gliadin antibodies. Rats showed much lower titres more comparable to the findings in normal human sera. In both these species the reactivity was directed principally against the alpha-gliadins. The spectrum of reactivity against the prolamines of other cereals was again comparable to that of human coeliac sera. A difference, however, was the high reactivity with maize prolamine; this was decidedly lower in sera of coeliac patients. Guinea pigs were distinctive in having relatively no serum antibodies to wheat gliadin and also minimal reactivity to the albumins, globulins and glutenins of wheat. Normal guinea pigs did, however, have antibodies to oat and maize prolamines. Following parenteral injection with total ethanol-soluble wheat gliadin, guinea pigs developed high-titred antibodies, not only to wheat gliadin fractions 1-8 (alpha-, beta-, gamma- and omega-gliadins), but also to all the cereal prolamines except those of rice. These investigations are steps in the evaluation of the role of circulating gliadin antibodies in gluten-sensitive enteropathy.