Gluten sensitivity in patients with IgA nephropathy.

Background: Coeliac disease is more frequent in IgA nephropathy (IgAN) patients compared to the healthy population. Several hypotheses postulate that food antigens like gluten may be involved in the onset of IgAN.

Methods: In this study, we used a recently developed mucosal patch technique to evaluate the rectal mucosal inflammatory reaction to gluten in patients with IgAN (n = 27) compared to healthy subjects (n = 18).