--by which celiac disease may cause neuropathy (and a host of other neuropathic conditions).

The first is the obvious one described here--villous atrophy leads to malabsorption of essential nutrients and deficiencies, which starves nerves (and other body tissues).

But there is also mounting evidence that the gluten peptides, in those with susceptibility due to genetic background, can result in the production of antibodies that cross react with certain components of peripheral nerve. This autoimmune attack can damage the nerves, and it also may damage certain parts of the brain, especially the cerebellum--gluten ataxia, for example, is thought to result from this process mediated through damage to Purkinje cells. This can get biochemically complicated to explain--the Gluten File has a number of articles about it, of which this is relatively representative:

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/126/3/685.full

Also, take a look at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2077388/

https://sites.google.com/site/jccglu...eralneuropathy