Table 3.

Analysis of ITF, MUC2 and GAPDH transcripts (by semiquantitative RT-PCR) in distal duodenal biopsies obtained from control subjects and patients with coeliac disease, before after gluten-free diet. Optical densities (OD) and their ratios are expressed as mean(± SD)

		Coeliac patients
	Controls	Untreated	Treated
Number of persons	8	9	11
ITF, OD/mm2	4·63 ± 2·81	1·69 ± 0·55**	3·21 ± 1·73§§
MUC2, OD/mm2	6·68 ± 4·72	4·46 ± 2·04	4·69 ± 2·52
GAPDH, OD/mm2	7·09 ± 3·12	7·96 ± 2·40	6·65 ± 2·14
ITF/MUC2	0·95 ± 0·57	0·46 ± 0·22*	0·82 ± 0·51§
MUC2/GAPDH	1·19 ± 1·13	0·63 ± 0·36	0·76 ± 0·48
ITF/GAPDH	0·77 ± 0·51	0·23 ± 0·08**	0·55 ± 0·35§§§

^*P = 0·029

^**P ≤ 0·007 compared to controls

^§P = 0·063

^§§P = 0·021

^§§§P = 0·013 compared to untreated coeliac samples.