<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

I wanted to let you all know what Dr. Kenneth Fine wrote to me.  I
emailed him with a question because I was a little perplexed by the
summary of HLA gene testing for Celiacs, and what it could actually tell
us.  Which is, if I am reading this email correctly, "nothing" or at
least very little.


Question: Does a negative gene test definitively prove a person DOES not
have Celiac Disease?

Joanna Schroeder Pass

Dear Mrs Pass,

I have done extensive investigation on the presence of HLA genes in
celiacs, patients with a related syndrome called microscopic colitis,
and people with less severe forms of gluten sensitivity.

I am a researcher first and everything operating out of EnteroLab has
been confirmed and reconfirmed with research.

HLA DQ2 and DQ8 were the first HLA DQ genes to be associate with a risk
of celiac disease.  However, we have recently reported in AM J Gastro
August 2000 that HLA DQ1,3 also may portend a risk of gluten sensitivity
with a more mild enteropathy.  This has also been reported by Picarelli
et al in Gastroenterology, 1996.  Others are now finding an association
with different subtypes of DQ1 (such as DQB0501 and DQB0602).  This was
reported at the 9th International Symposium of Celiac Disease in
Baltimore in August.

Thus, if you have the genes, it supports the clinical findings and
antibody results, it helps analyze people who have already started their
gluten free diet which could interfere with antibody tests (especially
blood tests), and it helps assess risk of gluten sensitivity in parents,
siblings , and children like all genetic testing does.

I hope this clarifies this.  You can be gluten sensitive and even have
celiac disease without the main DQ2 gene.


Yours sincerely,

Kenneth Fine, M.D.
FinerHealth and Nutrition
www.finerhealth.com

EnteroLab
www.enterolab.com