Study of the microbiota composition in adult celiac disease

Celiac Disease (CD) is an autoimmune, inflammatory disorder of the small intestine that involves a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. Gluten is the key, but not the unique, environmental trigger of CD in genetically predisposed individuals. To explore the existence of additional environmental factors with a role in pathogenesis and clinical picture a role for imbalances (“dysbiosis”) in the gut microbiota is the focus of our ongoing project, funded by “Associazione Italiana Celiachia” (AIC), specifically addresses these poorly understood aspect. The general aims of our project are to obtain a comparative metagenomic picture of the salivary, duodenal and fecal microbiota composition in four categories of adult CD patients (10 potential, 10 refractory, 20 active neo-diagnosed, 20 treated patients under gluten-free diet) vs. non-CD controls (n=20, suffering of functional dyspepsia). This allows to address the following questions: (i) does the eventual dysbiosis anticipates or follows the development of enteropathy?; (ii) does the gluten-free diet restore a normal composition of the microbiota?; (iii) is there any difference between active and complicated conditions, i.e.: are micobiota changes larger in complicated patients? In our poster, we will present some of these preliminary findings.