Eventhough we did not test the MoAb to catthepsin B3 against NEJ ES, we expect that the result will be positive because CatB3 gene is expressed in NEJ stage as supported by the in situ hybridization result that mRNA transcript is present in the caecal epithelium (Meemon et al., 2004), and in this manuscript we also reported the presence of CatB3 protein in the same caecal epithelium.