The effect of gluten on HLA-DR in the small intestinal epithelium of patients with coeliac disease.

Frozen sections of control and coeliac jejunal mucosa were examined for HLA-DR staining. In general the staining pattern in the controls and treated coeliac patients was a patchy subapical pattern on villous tips. Untreated coeliac patients gave a different pattern with staining extending to the crypt enterocytes. Gluten challenge in three treated coeliac patients induced an altered staining pattern within 2 h.