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Serum IL-8 in patients with dermatitis herpetiformis is produced in response to dietary gluten.

Hall RP, Benbenisty KM, Mickle C, Takeuchi F, Streilein RD

Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA. Hall0009@mc.duke.edu

Patients with dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) have a gluten-sensitive enteropathy and while on gluten-containing diets have elevated levels of serum IL-8. We hypothesized that the mucosal immune response to gluten is responsible for the elevated serum IL-8. Six DH patients were studied while on a gluten-free diet (GFD), whereas four continued on a normal diet. Patients were followed for a mean 2.2 years and serum IL-8 was analyzed. Small bowel biopsies from five DH patients on normal diets, two DH patients on GFD, and six subjects with no small bowel abnormalities were analyzed for IL-8 mRNA. Serum IL-8 levels normalized in five of six patients on GFD and decreased in one, whereas serum IL-8 levels showed no statistically significant change in DH patients on normal diets. Small bowel biopsies from DH patients on normal diets had increased expression of IL-8 mRNA compared to normal subjects, whereas patients on a GFD showed no significant increase in small bowel mRNA. No significant IL-8 mRNA was detected in normal skin biopsies from patients with DH. These observations suggest that the IL-8 in the serum of patients with DH originates from the small bowel as a mucosal immune response to gluten ingestion.

Published 16 August 2007 in J Invest Dermatol, 127(9): 2158-65.
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