Seroreactivity against Saccharomyces cerevisiae in patients with Crohn's disease and celiac disease.

Aim: To explore whether there was anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies (ASCA) positivity in our patients with biopsy-confirmed celiac disease.
Methods: A cohort of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (42 patients with Crohn's disease and 10 patients with ulcerative colitis) and gluten sensitive enteropathy (16 patients) from Debrecen, Hungary were enrolled in the study. The diagnosis was made using the formally accepted criteria. Perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (pANCA) and anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies (ASCA), antiendomysium antibodies (EMA), antigliadin antibodies (AGA) and anti human tissue transglutaminase antibodies (tTGA) were investigated.
Results: The results showed that ASCA positivity occurred not only in Crohn's disease but also in Celiac disease and in these cases both the IgG and IgA type antibodies were proved.
Conclusion: It is conceivable that ASCA positivity correlates with the (auto-) immune inflammation of small intestines and it is a specific marker of Crohn's disease.