The Hepatitis B Vaccine and Celiac Disease: More Lights Than Shadows?

mits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Dear Editor, Actually, in literature, it is known that HLA-DQ2 haplo-type is over-represented in celiac population and since both HBsAg protein fragments and gliadin peptides bind to HLA-DQ2 molecules; their competition may favors a defective antibody response against the recombinant HB-sAg vaccine in active celiac disease (1). On the other hand, some studies demonstrate that in celiac individuals, the gluten intake at the time of vaccination influences the vaccine-induced immune response (2). All these hypoth-eses are still argument of debate because the non-respon-siveness of celiac patients to the HBV vaccine remains a significant public health problem, although there is no convinced evidence that patients with viral hepatitis