Wheat gluten and T-cell response in diabetes patients
What it found
In people with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes, T cells reacted to wheat gluten more often than in people without diabetes, but the reaction was rare and weak overall.
What they found
Studies in people
T-cell reaction to gluten
A positive T-cell response to gluten was found in 7 of 29 people with newly diagnosed diabetes (24.1%), 6 of 39 with longer-term diabetes (15.4%), and 2 of 37 without diabetes (5.4%).
Strength of response
The median response score was 2.0 in newly diagnosed patients and 1.5 in people without diabetes. The authors note that responses were low in general.
Duration of diabetes
People who had diabetes for more than 2 years did not differ from people without diabetes in their T-cell response to gluten.
Antibodies to gliadin
Increased levels of IgA anti-gliadin antibodies were found in 3 of 29 people with recent diabetes, 2 of 33 with longer-term diabetes, and 1 of 37 without diabetes. There was no link between these antibodies and the T-cell response.
HLA risk genes
In people with diabetes, the T-cell response to gluten was not linked to the HLA-DQB1 risk genes for type 1 diabetes.
What the authors conclude
“Although T cell responses to gluten were slightly increased in newly diagnosed patients the responsiveness was rare, and thus our results do not support a major role of gluten in the pathogenesis of human IDDM.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say their results do not support a major role of gluten in the development of human type 1 diabetes.
- They suggest that the slightly increased T-cell response to gluten in newly diagnosed patients may reflect a general defect in how the gut immune system regulates tolerance to oral proteins.
- They note that cellular immunity to gluten was not seen in most diabetes patients, which questions the idea from animal models that gluten is an important dietary trigger for the autoimmune attack on pancreatic beta cells in humans.
How it was done
Animal studies had linked wheat gluten to diabetes risk, so the authors wanted to see if the same immune reaction to gluten happens in people with type 1 diabetes.
They took blood samples from 29 people with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes, 39 people who had diabetes for more than 2 years, and 37 people without diabetes. They measured how T cells from the blood responded to wheat gluten in the lab.
What it can’t tell you
- This study looked at T cells in blood, not in the pancreas, so it cannot show whether gluten affects the pancreas directly.
- It cannot prove that gluten does or does not cause type 1 diabetes, only that the T-cell response measured in blood was rare and weak.
- The study was done in a small group of children in Finland, so the results may not apply to other groups.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- University of Helsinki, Finland
The paper
- Title
- T-cell reactivity to wheat gluten in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Klemetti P, Savilahti E, Ilonen J, Akerblom HK, Vaarala O (1998). T-cell reactivity to wheat gluten in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Scandinavian journal of immunology. doi:10.1046/j.1365-3083.1998.00255.xFree full textPubMed 9467658DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error