Background: Oats provide important nutritional and pharmacological properties,
although their safety in coeliac patients remains controversial. Previous studies have
confirmed that the reactivity of the anti-33-mer monoclonal antibody with different oat
varieties is proportional to the immune responses in terms of T-cell proliferation.
Although the impact of these varieties on the adaptive response has been studied, the
role of the dendritic cells is still poorly understood. The aim of this study is to
characterize different oat fractions and to study their effect on dendritic cells from
coeliac patients.
Methods and results: Protein fractions were isolated from oat grains and analysed by
SDS-PAGE. Several proteins were characterized in the prolamin fraction using
immunological and proteomic tools, and by Nano-LC-MS/MS. These proteins,
analogous to α- and γ-gliadin-like, showed reactive sequences to anti-33-mer antibody
suggesting their immunogenic potential. That was further confirmed as some of the
newly identified oat peptides had a differential stimulatory capacity on circulating
dendritic cells from coeliac patients compared with healthy controls.
Conclusions : This is the first time, to our knowledge, where newly identified oat
peptides have been shown to elicit a differential stimulatory capacity on circulating
dendritic cells obtained from coeliac patients, potential identifying immunogenic
properties of these oat peptides.