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A retrospective study of 487 patients with dermatitis herpetiformis showed that lymphoma developed in eight patients, the expected incidence being 0.21 (standardized registration ratio 3810). All lymphomas occurred in patients whose dermatitis herpetiformis had been controlled without a gluten-free diet (GFD) or in those who had been treated with a GFD for less than 5 years. The results are suggestive of a protective role for a GFD against lymphoma in dermatitis herpetiformis and give further support for advising patients to adhere to a strict GFD for life.

The majority of patients with Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH) have a gluten-sensitive enteropathy which may be triggered by a T cell-mediated immune response to gluten. Using a proliferative assay, the responses to gluten fraction III, recall antigens and mitogens of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and gut T cell lines (TCL) isolated from patients with Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH) and normal controls were studied. In most cases, neither PBMC nor gut T cell lines (which were predominantly CD3+, CD4+, TCR alpha beta +) from either controls or patients proliferated in response to gluten fraction III alone. However, the addition of 10 U/ml IL-2 to PBMC cultures containing gluten fraction III resulted in a marked increase in proliferation in 9/19 DH patients and 7/11 controls compared to IL-2 alone. Furthermore, gluten-induced upregulation of IL-2 receptor (CD25) expression was demonstrated on PBMC from 4/4 patients with DH and 2/3 controls after 7 days' culture with antigen. A similar effect by exogenous IL-2, or the same concentration of IL-4, was observed in 8/11 (P = 0.02) and 5/6 respectively DH, and 3/4 normal gut T cell lines. No difference was observed in the response of DH and control PBMC to Tetanus toxin, Candida albicans and PPD; both normal and DH gut T cell lines were unresponsive to these antigens. However, the addition of IL-2 increased the response to Candida albicans by DH gut T cell lines. Moreover, the response of DH gut T cell lines to PHA (P < 0.001), Concanavalin A and anti-CD3 were markedly reduced compared to PBMC from the same patients. These findings suggest that gluten-specific T cells present in the blood and gut of normal and DH individuals are activated by but do not proliferate in response to specific antigen.

Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) is characterized by a rash and a gluten-sensitive enteropathy (GSE) indistinguishable from that of coeliac disease. T-cell-mediated mechanisms have been implicated in the pathogenesis of GSE. It seems feasible that intradermal injection of gluten, in patients known to have GSE, could lead to an influx of T cells sensitized to gluten, with subsequent development of a delayed hypersensitivity-type reaction. Six patients with DH and three normal subjects had intradermal injections of 'Frazer's fraction III' (FFIII; the partial peptic tryptic digest of gluten which is known to be antigenic) and phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) as a control. Skin biopsies were taken at PBS and FFIII injection sites at 48 h. In addition, two of the patients with DH had biopsies taken of FFIII injection sites at 6 h. Monoclonal antibodies and the avidin-biotin-peroxidase technique were used to stain for T cells in the skin biopsies. A monoclonal antibody to a neoepitope exposed in the terminal complement complex and an immunofluorescent method were used to detect the presence of terminal complement component in biopsies taken from two of the control subjects and two of the patients. Both patients and control subjects developed a weal and flare within a few minutes of injecting the FFIII, and this persisted for up to 6 h. No skin reaction was present in either the patients or the control subjects at 48 h. No skin reaction was visible at any time following injection of PBS.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Gluten-free diets have been used in the treatment of patients with dermatitis herpetiformis in our department since 1967. Of the 212 patients with dermatitis herpetiformis attending between 1967 and 1992, 133 managed to take the diet, and 78 of these achieved complete control of their rash by diet alone. Of the remaining 55 patients taking a gluten-free diet, all but three were taking partial diets; over half of these patients managed to substantially reduce the dose of medication required. Of the 77 patients taking a normal diet, eight entered spontaneous remission, giving a remission rate of 10%; a further two patients who had been taking gluten-free diets were found to have remitted when they resumed normal diets. Loss of IgA from the skin was observed in 10 of 41 (24%) patients taking strict gluten-free diets. These patients had been taking their diets for an average of 13 years (range 5-24 years), and their rash had been controlled by diet alone for an average of 10 years (range 3-16 years). The advantages of a gluten-free diet in the management of patients with dermatitis herpetiformis are: (i) the need for medication is reduced or abolished; (ii) there is resolution of the enteropathy, and (iii) patients experience a feeling of well-being after commencing the diet. Thus, we propose that a gluten-free diet is the most appropriate treatment for patients with dermatitis herpetiformis.

Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH), is associated with skin eruptions and granular depositions of IgA in the papillary dermis, but this is not a feature of coeliac disease (CD). The specificity of the IgA in the skin is unknown. High molecular weight glutenin (HMW-g), a component of gluten, has been shown to have structural similarities to human elastin. This paper reports immunoadsorption studies which suggest that human serum may contain antibodies which cross-react with HMW-g and elastin. DH patients had significantly lower levels of IgA antibodies to HMW-g and to elastin than both CD patients and healthy controls. Furthermore, introduction of a gluten-free diet (GFD) was associated with a further reduction in the amount of IgA antibodies to elastin in the DH patients. This diet-associated decrease of elastin antibodies was restricted to the IgA isotype. A significant correlation was observed between IgA antibodies to HMW-g and elastin in healthy controls and CD patients, while no such correlation was found in patients with DH. These findings could indicate that HMW-g induces production of antibodies to elastin, which are deposited in the skin, and that when the antigenic stimulus is removed, these antibodies are further reduced due to continuous dermal deposition. It is postulated that DH may be an autoimmune disease due to cross-reactivity between dietary glutenin and dermal elastin.

A study was undertaken to determine whether the skin eruption of linear IgA disease (LAD) was gluten dependent. Six patients with LAD were treated with a gluten free diet (GFD) for an average period of 33 months (range 19-48). Although one patient with LAD had an enteropathy which was clearly gluten sensitive, there was no convincing evidence that the rash of any of the patients responded to a GFD. Four of the six patients showed no significant alteration in their drug requirements. The remaining 2 patients showed a fall in minimum drug requirement but there was no increase after gluten challenge indicating that they were entering spontaneous remission. This contrasts to the situation in dermatitis herpetiformis, where both the rash and the enteropathy are gluten dependent. These data add further to the evidence that LAD and dermatitis herpetiformis are separate entities.

This study reports the appearance of IgA-class anti-endomysial antibodies in the serum of 8 out of 12 patients with dermatitis herpetiformis who were challenged with gluten after a number of years of control of the rash with a strict gluten-free diet. Although there was no evidence for the antibodies having any pathogenic role in the rash of dermatitis herpetiformis, their presence may be related to the deterioration in the gluten-sensitive enteropathy.