In the paper by Wang et al (Gut 2004;53:1096–1101), the acknowledgement and correct email address were not presented. The acknowledgement should have read as follows: "The authors thank senior technician Shu-Hao Wen for her assistance in processing the tissue slides, and Drs Jian-Ming Qian, Gang Sun, and Xiao-Hong Liu for their help in collecting the biopsy samples for the study project." In addition, the correct email address for Professor G-Z Pan is: pgzpublic3.bta.net.cn.