Effects of gliadin-derived peptides from bread and durum wheats on small intestine cultures from rat fetus and coeliac children.

Peptic-tryptic-cotazym (PTC) digests were obtained, simulating in vivo protein digestion, from albumin, globulin, gliadin and glutenin preparations from hexaploid (bread) wheat as well as from diploid (monococcum) and tetraploid (durum) wheat gliadins. The digest from bread wheat gliadins reversibly inhibited in vitro development and morphogenesis of small intestine from 17-day-old rat fetuses, whereas all the other digests (obtained both from nongliadin fractions and from gliadins from other wheat species) were inactive. The PTC-digest from bread wheat gliadins was also able to prevent recovery of and to damage the in vitro cultured small intestinal mucosa from patients with active coeliac disease (gluten-induced entheropathy). The PTC-digest from durum wheat gliadins caused a much less adverse effect on this human pathologic tissue culture system.