Gluten Sensitivity Biomarkers in Menière's Disease: Is It a Gluten Related Disorder?

Background: Meniere's disease (MD) has been recently linked to gluten assumption. Approximately 75% of MD patients show positive skin test to food and about 50% of the positive responses are specific to the gliadin acid extract fraction. Aim of this study was to investigate the humoral immune responses to wheat antigens and related autoantigens in MD patients. Methods. We assessed the reactivity of sera from 28 patients with definite MD and 100 healthy controls against a repertoire of 51 antigens usually associated with immune reaction to gluten. Results. MD patients showed an increase of anti-wheat IgA, anti-cerebellar peptide IgA and anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) 65 IgM compared to healthy controls. In particular, the increase of antiwheat IgA and GAD 65 IgM has been confirmed in a subgroup of MD patients symptomatically responding to a gluten free diet (GFD). Conclusion. In MD patients, an increase of the antibody production against gluten biomarkers was observed; in particular, anti-wheat IgA seems to be associated to clinical response to GFD.