Relationship Between Galectin-10 Expression and Severity of Celiac Disease Abolished in the Presence of Gammadelta-Positive T-Cell Clonal Expansion

Celiac disease (CD) patients are prone to develop T-cell lymphoma throughout a progressive accumulation of aberrant, clonal gd+ T-cells. It is supposed that high production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and chronic antigenic stimulation, due to gluten ingestion, plays a key role in inducing inflammation, resistance to apoptosis and the emergence of these T-clones. Regulatory T-cells maintain immunological self-tolerance by active suppression of auto aggressive T-cells. Among them, Tr1 subset plays a role in the suppression of naïve and memory T-cells. The role of Tr1 in human diseases is not well understood, even because there are no specific markers able to identify these cells, however recently, Galectin-10 has been proposed as a marker for functional Tr1. To better understand pathogenetic mechanisms associated with CD and clonal T-cell proliferations we investigated galectin-10 expression from gut epithelium by 2D-DIGE approaches. Patients were selected and grouped for histological inflammatory degree and for gd+T pattern defined by g-TCR genescan analysis. Groups consisted of 7 individuals with Marsh-0 (4/7 oligoclonal), 3 with a Marsh-1 or -2 (3/3 polyclonal) and 5 with Marsh-3 (2/5 clonal gd+T). Control consisted of 4 individuals with excluded CD. We found, a parallel increase in galectin-10 levels and Marsh index in individuals with polyclonal gd+T cells (p=0.0092), while reduced levels were evidenced from patients with clonal gd+T cells and Marsh-3 (p=0.017). We assume that galectin-10 up-expression is induce to an attempt to extinguish inflammation. If these clones are those more susceptible to malignant progression reserve further exploration.