EGF

Where it comes from

Made in

Salivary glands, duodenal Brunner’s glands, kidney and milk; also platelets

Sent out by

Into saliva, gut, urine and milk; cut from its precursor by proteases

Acts on

• Epithelial cells of skin and gut
• Fibroblasts
• Tumours with EGFR

What it does

• Drives epithelial cells to divide and move, closing wounds
• Protects and repairs the gut lining; it was first known as urogastrone, found in urine as an inhibitor of gastric acid before the two were shown to be the same peptide ⁴
• Supports the growth of a newborn’s gut, from milk

In medicine

• Recombinant human EGF is approved in several countries, Cuba, China and Korea among them, for diabetic foot ulcers and burns: injected into the ulcer in Cuba ¹, sprayed onto it in Korea, where a phase 3 trial healed 73 per cent of ulcers against 51 per cent on placebo ². It is approved in neither the United States nor the European Union
• EGFR blockers work the other way round and treat cancer: cetuximab, panitumumab, erlotinib, osimertinib and the rest
• EGF enemas were tested in 24 people with left-sided ulcerative colitis: 10 of 12 on EGF were in remission at two weeks against 1 of 12 on placebo ³

Beyond the body’s own use

• EGF is a common ingredient in skin creams. The trials behind that use are small and short, and a protein of this size crosses intact skin poorly, so how much reaches a living cell is unclear
• In the gut it is still being studied: the enema result in ulcerative colitis has not been repeated in a larger trial in twenty years, and the EGF in milk is studied for the protection of the premature intestine ³