Since it was previously demonstrated that H+/K+ ATPase-specific CD4+ T cells were rapidly deleted in the periphery and unable to induce autoimmune gastritis in non-irradiated wildtype mice [24], all recipient mice used in this study were lightly irradiated at 600 rads to enhance the survival of transferred T cells from H/Kα−/− mice. This evidence concerns the gene CD4 and autoimmune gastritis.