A study was undertaken to determine whether the skin eruption of linear IgA 
disease (LAD) was gluten dependent. Six patients with LAD were treated with a 
gluten free diet (GFD) for an average period of 33 months (range 19-48). 
Although one patient with LAD had an enteropathy which was clearly gluten 
sensitive, there was no convincing evidence that the rash of any of the patients 
responded to a GFD. Four of the six patients showed no significant alteration in 
their drug requirements. The remaining 2 patients showed a fall in minimum drug 
requirement but there was no increase after gluten challenge indicating that 
they were entering spontaneous remission. This contrasts to the situation in 
dermatitis herpetiformis, where both the rash and the enteropathy are gluten 
dependent. These data add further to the evidence that LAD and dermatitis 
herpetiformis are separate entities.