Editor,—The article by Hayatet al ((1999) Gut 45:495–498; OpenUrlPubMed) reporting the decrease in intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) in the gastric mucosa afterHelicobacter pylori eradication is interesting and confirms the suggestion that lymphocytic gastritis could be a manifestation of an atypical host immune response toH pylori. But we would like to ask Dr Hayat and colleagues whether they also investigated the presence of lymphoid follicles in the lamina propria of gastric mucosa of their patients. In fact, mucosa associated lymphoid tissue (MALT), organised in follicles with a germinative centre and B cell reactivity, which structurally resemble Peyer's patches, can develop in the lamina propria afterH pylori infection.1 ,2 Also, the development of these reactive lymphoid follicles may depend on the characteristics of the host and stimuli other thanH pylori. We found lymphoid follicles in the gastric mucosa of 30% of our coeliac patients, of whom only 38% were …