Coeliac disease (also called celiac disease) is caused by autoagression of immune system. It is characterized by gluten intolerance – some proteins specific for crops, such as wheat, barley and rye, are not tolerated by the organism. In such case, consuming of gluten causes irritation of mucosa, as well as disappearance of intestinal villi. As a result, nutrients are absorbed less efficiently.

About 1% of population suffers from coeliac disease, however the majority of affected people are oblivious of their condition. They suffer from so called silent form of this disease which is very difficult to diagnose due to unspecific symptoms, such as fatigue, headache, muscle pain, mouth ulcers or anaemia. Classical coeliac disease is diagnosed mostly in children and is characterized by stomach pains, flatulence, diarrhea, loss of body weight and short stature.

Coeliac disease is determined genetically. Alleles of major histocompatibility complex (HLA) are involved in development of this condition, especially those encoding for antigens HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8. HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8 haplotypes (serotypes) are associated with the increased risk of developing Coeliac disease. They are determined by certain allelic variants of two genes: HLA-DQA1 and HLA-DQB1. DQ2 haplotype is defined by the HLA-DQA1*05-DQB1*02 allele combination and DQ8 haplotype is defined by the HLA-DQA1*03-DQB1*0302 allele combination.