Lab Test Results
 

My son has celiac's disease so I decided to get tested to see if he got it from me because I have been very ill. When I got my test results back, everything was in normal range except my t-transglutaminase IgA was <2??? The normal range is 0-3. Does anyone know what this means? I know that higher numbers result in being positive but what about lower numbers?

"<2" means between 0 and 2. If normal falls between 0 and 3, then your score is normal. When the body gets attacked by an antigen it can create antibodies against the antigen. That's an immune response. The body can also create antibodies against tissue affected by the antigen. That's an autoimmune response.

Tissue transglutaminase (tTg) is a protein which binds cells and glutamine, a sugar/protein hybrid molecule, to form tissue. IgA is a type of T-Cell antibody which operates on the surfaces of mucous membranes. Anti-Tissue transglutaminase antibodies (ATA) are antibodies which the body produces to destroy tTg when the body thinks its tTg has been compromised by an antigen. The IgA form of ATA attacks compromised tTg on a mucous membrane.

Gluten contains hyphal wall protein 1 (HWP1) on its surface. HWP1 sticks to the tTg on people's small intestine walls and causes damage.

If your test results are all in normal range it means, on the day you were tested, your body did not have an inordinate number of antibodies against gluten, or against the tTg in your small intestine mucous membrane.

However, there are a few caveats:
1. Your body might have produced an abundance of anti-tTg antibodies. But the gluten attack was so great that they had mostly been used up.
2. Your small intestine could be extremely sensitive to gluten, but your immune system does not recognize the problem, and does not respond with antibodies.
3. You might not have eaten gluten before the test.
4. You aren't sensitive to gluten.

The only way to know is to stop eating gluten, and see how you feel. Re-challenge and see how you feel.
..