Metabolites (Jan 2025)

Vitamins and Celiac Disease: Beyond Vitamin D

  • Matteo Scarampi,
  • Caterina Mengoli,
  • Emanuela Miceli,
  • Michele Di Stefano

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo15020078
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 2
p. 78

Abstract

Read online

Celiac disease is a chronic inflammatory condition of the small bowel caused, in genetically predisposed subjects, by the ingestion of gluten and characterised by a broad clinical polymorphism, ranging from patients with an asymptomatic or paucisymptomatic disease. The clinical presentation ranges from the presence of minor, apparently unrelated symptoms or first-degree kinship with known patients to severe intestinal malabsorption and all its clinical consequences and complications. Even if a large body of research improved our understanding of the molecular basis of celiac disease pathophysiology, enhancing the identification of new targets for future new treatments, an accurate gluten-free diet remains the mainstay of the therapy for this condition, restoring a normal absorptive mucosa. It is very rare, nowadays, to deal with patients with severe malabsorption syndrome secondary to celiac disease. Consequently, physicians are currently less prone to search for nutritional deficiencies in celiac disease. To pinpoint the possibility of both a disease-related and a diet-induced vitamin deficiency, we reviewed the literature on vitamin deficiency in this condition and reported the impact both in untreated and treated patients with celiac disease. A gluten-free diet must be tailored for each patient to meet nutritional targets: the pre-existence or diet-induced intake inadequacies should be carefully considered for an effective management of celiac disease.

Keywords