EGFR and Atrophy: For this reason we have stained EGFR in CD mucosa to confirm that the EGF receptor/ligand system is activated, and we found that also the EGFR protein is increased not only in CD enterocytes with villous atrophy but also in GFD patients indicating that there is a positive autocrine loop [21] between EGFR activation and EGF mRNA production in enterocytes, that is independent of gluten intake and crypt hyperplasia.