IMMUNE REACTION BETWEEN FOOD-SPECIFIC ANTIBODIES AND HUMAN TISSUE MAY CONTRIBUTE TO AUTOIMMUNITY.
- Lydia R. Gushgari, United States of America
Abstract
Background and Aims
Environmental factors have been shown to play a major role in autoimmune diseases; relatively little attention has been given to food components as possible modifiers of these disorders. We summarize the current body of knowledge related to different mechanisms and associations between food components and autoimmunity.
Methods
Because the conformational fit between food antigens and a host’s self-determinants has been determined for only a few food proteins, we used ELISA to examine the reactivity of affinity-purified disease-specific antibodies with different food antigens, and studied the reaction of monoclonal or polyclonal tissue-specific antibodies with various food antigens and the reaction of food-specific antibodies with human tissue antigens.
Results
Our results showed that antibodies made against different tissue antigens react with many food antigens, and food-specific antibodies react with various tissue antigens. For example, Sm-affinity-purified serum from lupus patients reacted strongly with soy, carrot, spinach and corn. Scl70-purified antibody from scleroderma patients reacted with wheat germ, peas, spinach and corn. Thyroid antibody showed strong reaction with 20 out of 204 tested foods, while amyloid-b peptide reacted with 10. Antibody to pancreatic islet cell reacted with many foods. Conversely, milk, corn, soy, egg, peanut, lectins and agglutinins reacted strongly with many tissue antigens.
Conclusions
We postulated that chemical modification of food proteins by toxicants in food may result in immune reaction against modified food proteins that cross-react with tissue antigens, resulting in autoimmune reactivity. Understanding the relationship between specific foods and autoimmunity can assist practitioners to formulate diets that may help prevent or ameliorate autoimmune disease.