Circulating Antibodies to Dietary Proteins in Ulcerative Colitis

Abstract

While making a controlled therapeutic trial of three types of diet in ulcerative colitis, the opportunity was taken to study the levels of circulating antibodies to various dietary proteins throughout the one-year trial period. Serial observations have been made on 51 of these patients, the sera being taken at monthly intervals and tested for antibodies to whole cow’s milk, casein, α-lactalbumin, β-lactoglobulin, gluten fraction III, and ovalbumin. The titres of circulating antibodies to the various dietary proteins bore no close relationship to one another in the individual patients. There was little fluctuation in antibody titre throughout the period of study, and the occurrence of a relapse of ulcerative colitis, the use of corticosteroids in therapy, and the exclusion or reintroduction of specific items from the diet had no consistent effect on the titres. For the 51 patients as a group there was a highly significant association between a high titre of circulating antibodies to whole milk and multiple relapses of colitis occurring during the trial period. A similar though less pronounced relationship was also found with a-lactalbumin. In the individual case clinical evidence of hypersensitivity to milk could not be predicted from the antibody level. The significance of these findings is discussed in relation to the possibility of ulcerative colitis being an allergic disease. © 1965, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.