Relationship between severity, necrosis and apoptosis in five
models of experimental acute pancreatitis.
Kaiser, Andreas M., Ashok K. Saluja, Ashok Sengupta, Manju Saluja,
Michael L. Steer.
Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical
School, Harvard Digestive Diseases Center, Boston, MA 02215, and
Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Boston
University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118
APStracts 2:0219C, 1995.
In an effort to elucidate factors which determine the severity of an
attack of acute pancreatitis, we have quantitated the extent of
necrosis and of apoptosis in 5 different models of experimental acute
pancreatitis. Severe pancreatitis was induced by obstruction of the
opossum common bile-pancreatic duct, by 12 hourly injections of mice
with a supramaximally stimulating dose of caerulein, and by feeding
young female mice a choline-deficient ethionine supplemented diet. In
each of these models of severe pancreatitis, marked necrosis but very
little apoptosis was found. Mild pancreatitis was induced by
obstruction of the rat common bile-pancreatic duct and by infusing
rats with a supramaximally stimulating dose of caerulein. In contrast
to our findings in severe pancreatitis, mild pancreatitis was
characterized by very little necrosis but a high degree of apoptosis.
Our finding that the severity of acute pancreatitis is inversely
related to the degree of apoptosis suggests that apoptosis may be a
teleologically beneficial response to acinar cell injury in general
and especially in acute pancreatitis.
Received 6 January 1995; accepted in final form 17 May 1995.
APS Manuscript Number C14-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 8 June 1995.