EGF and necrotizing enterocolitis: In both rat [58,62,105] and mouse [61,175] NEC models, in which intestinal permeability was measured by administration of oral 73 kD FITC-labelled dextran, intestinal permeability was considerably reduced by HB-EGF treatment, both at 48 h [61,62,105], 72 h [62,105] and 96 h [175] after birth.