How a Gluten-Free Diet Affects Coeliac Disease: MRI Study Reveals - Video

Experts have used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to better understand the impact a gluten free diet has on people with coeliac disease, which could be the first step towards finding new ways of treating the condition.

The MARCO study – MAgnetic Resonance Imaging in COliac disease – was published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CGH).

The only treatment of coeliac disease is a life- long commitment to a

gluten free diet, which helps recovery of the gut tissue but still leaves many patients with gastrointestinal symptoms.The team recruited 36 people who had just been diagnosed with coeliac disease and 36 healthy volunteers to participate in the study. Images were taken of their guts with MRI, along with blood and stool samples. The patients then followed a gluten free diet for one year and came back to repeat the study. The healthy participants came back one year later too and repeated the study, but they did not follow any diet treatment.

The study found that the newly diagnosed patients with coeliac disease had more gut symptoms, more fluid in the small bowel and that the transit of food in the bowel was slower than in the healthy controls.

The microbiota (the ‘bugs’ living in the colon) of the patients showed higher levels of ‘bad bugs’ such as E.coli. After one year of a gluten free diet, gut symptoms, bowel water and gut transit improved in the patients, but without returning to normal values. By contrast, the gluten free diet reduced some of the ‘good bugs’ in the microbiota, such as Bifidobacteria associated with reduced intake of starch and wheat nutrients, due to the different diet.

Reference: Carolyn M. Costigan, Frederick J. Warren, Anthony P. Duncan, Caroline L. Hoad, Nina Lewis, Trevor Hill, Colin J. Crooks, Paul S. Morgan, Carolina Ciacci, Paola Iovino, David S. Sanders, Falk Hildebrand, Penny A. Gowland, Robin C. Spiller, Luca Marciani, bioRxiv 2024.06.20.599876; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.20.599876