Disappearance of epidermal transglutaminase and IgA deposits from the papillary dermis of dermatitis herpetiformis patients after a long-term gluten-free diet

Abstract

Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) is an itchy, blistering skin disease characterised by the deposition of granular immunoglobulin A (IgA) in the papillary dermis. It is regarded as the cutaneous manifestation of coeliac disease, an autoimmune-mediated condition affecting the small intestine. In addition to skin symptoms, DH patients have mostly subclinical small-intestinal villous atrophy and crypt hyperplasia or at least coeliac-type inflammatory changes. Moreover, DH patients have specific antibodies targeting epidermal transglutaminase (a.k.a. transglutaminase 3, TG3), the dominant autoantigen in DH ¹.

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