ATLA::Alternatives to Laboratory Animals

Volume 25, Number 4

The activities of peptides "31 43", "44-55" and "56-68" of A-gliadin on in vitro cultures of CaCo-2 cells.

ATLA 25, 437-443, July/August 1997

Claudio Giovannini, Roberto Lechetti and Massimo De Vincenzi

Laboratorio i Metabolismo e Biochimica Patologica, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Viale Regina Elena 209, 00161 Rome, Italy

SUMMARY

In previous studies, various A-gliadin peptides with known amino acid sequences have been tested for their damaging effects on in vitro cultured atrophic coeliac mucosa. The largest common sequences among the in vitro toxic peptides were (gln)3-pro and pro-ser(gln)2. Three of these active A-gliadin fragments were synthesized and characterized, namely, the peptides corresponding to the amino acid sequences "31-43" and "44-55", which contain the sequences (gln)3-pro and pro-ser-(gln)2, respectively, and the "56-68" fragment lacking both active amino acid sequences. While the "56-68" A-gliadin peptide was completely inactive in CaCo-2 cells, the other two peptides were cytotoxic toward these cells to different extents. Our results confirm that CaCo-2 cells are a suitable model for the identification of toxic peptides responsible for coeliac pathogenesis.

Keywords: CaCo-2 cell line, coeliac disease, A-gliadin peptides