The findings that NEC is associated with reduced intestinal stem cells is supportive of earlier work by Besner and colleagues, who not only showed that the intestinal stem cells and all subsequent lineages were reduced in experimental NEC, but also demonstrated that the administration of the heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (HB-EGF) could restore intestinal stem cells and therefore attenuate the severity of NEC [67]. This evidence concerns the gene HBEGF and necrotizing enterocolitis.