Increased intestinal epithelial cell permeability is a key feature of the early stages of CD, and since the celiac peptide shows sequence homology with cell junction proteins including desmoglein 1 [16], a major component of intercellular desmosome junctions (Figure 8A), we sought to determine whether affinity-purified antibodies against the celiac peptide were able to recognize desmoglein 1. This evidence concerns the gene DSG1 and Cowden disease.