Prolamin celiac disease

Wheat, rye, and barley have a common ancestral origin in the grass family. Oats are more distantly related to the analogous proteins in wheat, rye, and barley and the oat prolamins (avenin) have substantially lower proline content. Avenin accounts for 5-15% of the total protein in oats, whereas in wheat, barley, and rye, prolamins constitute 40-50% of the total protein (Kilmartin et al., 2006). Some investigators believe that there are similarities between the protein structure of oats and some wheat-like sequences, which may indicate that large amounts of oats could potentially be toxic to patients with celiac disease. However, the putative toxic amino acid sequences are less frequent in avenin than in other prolamins, which explains the less toxic nature of oats (Arentz-Hansen et al., 2004 Ellis and Ciclitira, 2001, 2008 Shan et al., 2005 Vader et al., 2002, 2003). 

Wheat, rye and barley can cause celiac disease in genetically predisposed persons the role of oats in this disease is uncertain. Celiac disease affects both infants and adolescents, and in adults it is also called sprue. It is associated with a loss of villous structure of the intestinal mucosa epithelial cells exhibit degenerative changes and nutrient absorption functions are severly impaired. Incidence of the disease varies, e. g., 0.1% of the children are affected in central Europe and 0.3% in Ireland. The prolamin fractions of wheat, barley or rye are the cause of the disease, which is therefore eliminated by a change of diet to rice, millet or corn. 

The Triticeae, in which the prolamin amino acid compositions are closely related, can also cause Celiac disease (cf. 15.1.6). In comparison to other... 

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