HLA-DR, DP and DQ expression in the small intestine of patients with coeliac disease

Frozen sections of jejunal mucosa from control subjects and patients with both treated and untreated coeliac disease were examined for HLA class II DR, DP and DQ expression. Different staining patterns with monoclonal antibodies to the different class II subgroups were observed with the control subjects. There was some inter-subject variation but in general DR greater than DP greater than DQ staining was observed with the villous enterocytes staining most strongly with the staining decreasing towards the crypt bases. The patients with treated coeliac disease gave a similar pattern to the controls. The patients with untreated coeliac disease generally gave a more intense and relatively uniform staining of both surface and crypt enterocytes for all class II subgroups.