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The Journal of Experimental Medicine
195
6
Dermatitis herpetiformis, a blistering skin disease, is the rarer form of gluten sensitivity which usually presents as the enteric celiac disease. While tissue (type 2) transglutaminase has been implicated as the major autoantigen of gluten-sensitive disease, there has been no explanation as to why this condition appears in two distinct entities. The authors show that high avidity antibodies against epidermal (type 3) transglutaminase are present specifically in patients with dermatitis herpetiformis and suggest that epidermal transglutaminase is the so far unknown autoantigen. The image demonstrates immunohistochemical colocalization of epidermal (type 3) transglutaminase with the characteristic IgA deposits in the papillary dermis of a patient with dermatitis herpetiformis (yellow). In addition, the epidermal transglutaminase shows its normal distribution pattern in the epidermis (red). See related article by Sardy et al., pp.
747-757.
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