Editor,—We read with interest the Science Alert comment by Mäki (Gut 1997;41:565–6) on Dieterich et al’s paper1 identifying tissue glutamine (tTG) as the antigen for endomysial antibody (EMA). Unfortunately, Dr Mäki’s comments were somewhat speculative and severely biased towards his own view that gliadin somehow (but how?!) reveals neo-epitopes which, by inducing antibodies to connective tissue, apparently provide the key to the central pathogenic mechanism for gluten sensitivity. It is hardly useful to read that “… coeliac disease is indeed self-perpetuating and irreversible if the environmental trigger, gliadin, is not removed …”: that information has been around since Dicke’s era.

That there have been exciting findings from Sollid and colleagues from …