PROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF CIS9,TRANS11 CONJUGATED LINOLEIC ACID ISOMER IN A MOUSE MODEL OF GLUTEN SENSITIVITY: AN HISTOMORPHOLOGICAL STUDY

COX inhibition by indomethacin and gliadin administration to sensitized transgenic mice expressing the HLA-DQ8 heterodimer (DQ8 mice), was recently proposed as specific animal model of gluten sensitivity. Conjugated Linoleic Acid, a collective term used to describe a mixture of c9t11, and t10c12 isomer of linoleic acid, exhibited protective effects against gluten-mediated toxic effects on DQ8 mice intestine, however the role of individual isomer is still unclear. Three groups of 6-12 weeks-old DQ8 mice (n=7 each) were examined. One group received indomethacin (1.5 mg/100 mL in drinking water) and it wasintra-gastrically administered with 500 g of a chymotryptic digest of gliadin (days 0, 3, 5 and 7) before sacrifice (day 10) (indo+gliadin, T). Another group was pre-treated by oral administration of c9,t11 isomer for 14 days (15 mg/day) before indo+gliadin (C9+T); the last untreated group was used as control (Ct). A morphometric analysis was performed on paraffin sections of small intestinesamples to evaluate the protective effects produced by the c9,t11 pre-treatment.In particular, the sections were stained with hematoxylin-eosin, to observe the general morphology and to evaluate the villus/crypts ratio, orwith PAS to determine the occurrence and distribution of globet cells. Intestinal villi atrophy and decreased number of PAS+ globet cells occurred in T micewhereas intestinal histomorphology of C9+T animals was comparable with that of Ct. Presented findings demonstrates a clear protective effect of c9,t11 isomer against the harmful effects triggered by indo+gliadin treatment.