[Celiac disease and negative serology villous atrophy: histological comparison and immunohistochemical study of CD3, CD4, CD8 and CD56 lymphocytes].

Unlabelled: There is a group of enteropathies recently known as seronegative villous atrophy (SNVA), which can simulate celiac disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe histological and immunohistochemical differences between a group of Celiac disease and SNVA patients.

Material And Methods: Microscopy reexamination and Immunohistochemistry study were performed for a group of 15 celiac patients and 19 SNVA patients. Histological features as severe atrophy, crypt hyperplasia, plasma cells number, eosinophils number, neutrophils presence were studied; CD4, CD8, CD3, and CD56 markers were studied through immunohistochemistry.

Results: There was a significant difference between the frequency of observation of crypt hyperplasia (p=0.0348) and plasma cells (p=0.0348) in celiac disease patients than SNVA patients. In celiac disease was bigger. The number and distribution of CD 8, CD4 and CD56 lymphocytes was similar in both groups. The percentage of CD3 positive intraepithelial lymphocytes (p=0.0144) was higher in SNVA.

Conclusion: Histological and immunohistochemical evaluation shows more similarities than differences. The differences found in this study suggest more humoral immune response in celiac disease than in SNVA.