Pathophysiology of Coeliac Sprue

Abstract

It is widely known that coeliac sprue is nearly always accompanied by malabsorption, and there are abundant relevant data on this subject. Far less attention has so far been paid to possible changes of the physiological processes in the small intestine in patients with coeliac sprue. There are indeed some indications that these processes take an abnormal course. This is quite conceivable, because the inflammatory lesions in the intestinal wall do involve mucosal and submucosal elements other than the enterocytes, such as the hormone or mucus producing cells, the nerve fibres and the blood vessels or lymphatics.