Detection of nitric oxide production and its role in pancreas ischemia/reperfusion in rats. Tanaka, Satonori, Wataru Kamiike, Hiroaki Kosaka, Toshinori Ito, Eiji Kumura, Takeshi Shiga, and Hikaru Matsuda. First Department of Surgery and First Department of Physiology, Osaka University Medical School, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565, Japan
APStracts 3:0072G, 1996.
Partial ischemia of the rat pancreas body and tail was obtained by occlusion of the celiac axis for 1 hr after gastrectomy. The plasma level of nitrite plus nitrate in both the systemic and portal venous blood after reperfusion was significantly higher than that after sham operation and ischemia alone. The elevation after reperfusion was significantly decreased by NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME). Simultaneous administration of L-arginine counteracted the L-NAME -induced decrease in the level of NO end products. Generation of NO was further demonstrated by nitrosylhemoglobin detection by electron spin resonance in the blood after reperfuson. On the other hand, the plasma level of lipase, a marker of damage to pancreatic exocrine tissue, was significantly increased after ischemia/reperfusion, and it was further increased by administration of L-NAME. This increase in the lipase correlated with a decrease in the tissue blood flow in the pancreas. These results suggest that NO is generated during ischemia/reperfusion of the rat pancreas and NO may have a protective role in ischemic /reperfusion of the pancreas.

Received 2 October 1995; accepted in final form 15 March 1996.
APS Manuscript Number G425-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Gastrointest. Liver
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 16 April 96