Celiac disease: A journey through time and space

Celiac disease (CD) is a multi-systemic autoimmune disorder induced by gluten exposure in genetically susceptible individuals. At the time we developed our interest on CD during the 1980s, this disorder was considered rare. Initially we started investigating the epidemiology of CD in Italy and other countries using new diagnostic tools, then moved on to other studies aimed to clarify the clinical picture of this condition and the dose-effect relationship between the ingestion of gluten and the celiac enteropathy. By showing that CD is much more common than previously thought, our pioneer works had a significant impact at the international level and were validated by further investigations conducted all over the world. Then our major research interest was to shed a light on the complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors leading to CD. We contributed to understand the role of early nutrition as a disease trigger, by means of long-term, prospective, intervention studies. The results of this recent work contributed to change the current recommendations on infant nutrition at the European level. Our current studies contributed to shift from the “Ptolemaic” view of a single disorder (CD) to the “Copernican” view of a system of different and interconnected gluten-related disorders.