Vitiligo and Autoantibodies of Celiac Disease

Background: vitiligo is an acquired, idiopathic disorder characterizedby circumscribed depigmented macules and patches. the exact etiologyand pathogenesis of vitiligo is not clear. many theories have beenpresented regarding this subject among them aautoimmune theory is themost important one. the association of vitiligo with other autoimmunedisorders has been reported, but the relationship between vitiligoand celiac disease is controversial. the aim of this study was to studythe frequency of celiac autoantibodies in a group of vitiligo patientscompared with control.methods: this was a cross sectional case control study that involved 128individuals, 64 vitiligo patients and 64 individuals as control group. themeans age of participants was 30.3 ± 14.4 years. iga anti endomysialantibody and iga anti?glutaminase antibody were measured by elisamethod in the serum of all participants. data were analyzed by spsssoftware version 15.results: the serum of two vitiligo patients (3.1%) was positivefor antibodies. all control groups were seronegative for theseantibodies (p < 0.05). there was no significant effect of sex and job onseropositivity.conclusion: there may be a relationship between celiac disease andvitiligo. this may indicate a common basic autoimmune mechanism thatis an explanation for few case reports that gluten free diets were effectivein the treatment of vitiligo patients. both t test and exact fisher testshowed no effect of age, sex and job on seropositivity of these patients(p = 0.56 and p = 0.74, respectively)