Possible association between celiac disease and bacterial transglutaminase in food processing
Updated: Aug 14, 2021
The incidence of celiac disease is increasing worldwide, and human tissue transglutaminase has long been considered the autoantigen of celiac disease.
Concomitantly, the food industry has introduced ingredients such as microbial transglutaminase, which acts as a food glue, thereby revolutionizing food qualities
Meat glue is not just restricted to meat, its also found in a variety of other products like fish, cheese and milk. lt's difficult to ascertain how it's labelled if at all in different countries.
First, microbial transglutaminase deamidates/transamidates glutens such as the endogenous human tissue transglutaminase. It is capable of crosslinking proteins and other macromolecules, thereby changing their antigenicity and resulting in an increased antigenic load presented to the immune system.
Second, it increases the stability of protein against proteinases, thus diminishing foreign protein elimination. Infections and the crosslinked nutritional constituent gluten and microbial transglutaminase increase the permeability of the intestine, where microbial transglutaminases are necessary for bacterial survival.
The resulting intestinal leakage allows more immunogenic foreign molecules to induce celiac disease.
The increased use of microbial transglutaminase in food processing may promote celiac pathogenesis ex vivo, where deamidation/transamidation starts, possibly explaining the surge in incidence of celiac disease.
If future research substantiates this hypothesis, the findings will affect food product labeling, food additive policies of the food industry, and consumer health education.
Meat glue is not just restricted to meat, its also found in a variety of other products like fish, cheese and milk.
Below are pictures from a company called BDF Ingredients who produce a variety of different glues for applications.
Unfortunately these glues lurk in more food products than we are aware of, and it appears to be a confusing mind field to ascertain how it's labelled if at all in different countries.
Check out this link to a video on how it's used in meat production.
© The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Life Sciences Institute.
By Lerner A, et al. Nutr Rev. 2015.
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