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“I was diagnosed with celiac disease two years ago. Since that time I've not donated blood for fear of passing this on to someone else. Can I pass this on by donating blood?” Thanks much, Carol.
This is a very interesting question. There are a number of issues. First, with a blood transfusion you will pass on your high IgG-gliadin antibodies and high tTG antibodies. Theoretically, this could lead to an immune complex problem in the recipient, until the antibodies have been destroyed over the next few months. Second, if the recipient has the celiac predisposition (an HLA DQ2/DQ8 makeup), then perhaps it could trigger the onset of celiac disease. However, I know of no human data or information on this fascinating question. But there is some animal work that suggests that in susceptible people there could be the onset of a graft-versus-host disease triggered by sensitized lymphocytes in the presence of the tTG antibody (E. Stuber. J Autoimmun. 2002) Third, a person who has had a blood transfusion from a celiac could be erroneously diagnosed as having celiac disease. That is because the celiac antibodies in the transfused blood take a few months to be eliminated and will cause a false positive test for the first few months following the transfusion. Interesting issues which have not yet been researched. |
