Local immune response to food antigens drives meal-induced abdominal pain

Up to 20% of people worldwide develop gastrointestinal symptoms following a meal (1) , leading to decreased quality of life, substantial morbidity and high medical costs. Although the interest of both the scientific and lay communities in this issue has increased markedly in recent years, with the worldwide introduction of gluten-free and other diets , the underlying mechanisms of food-induced abdominal complaints remain largely unknown. Here we show that a bacterial infection and bacterial toxins can trigger an immune response that leads to the production of dietary-antigen-specific IgE antibodies in mice, which are limited to the intestine . Following subsequent oral ingestion of the respective dietary antigen, an IgE- and mast-cell dependent mechanism induced increased visceral pain. This aberrant pain si…