Increased cytosolic Ca2+ amplifies oxygen radical-induced alterations of the ultrastructure and the energy metabolism of isolated rat pancreatic acinar cells.

Background: Oxygen radicals have been implicated as important mediators in the early pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis, but the mechanism by which they produce pancreatic tissue injury remains unclear. We have, therefore, investigated the effects of oxygen radicals on isolated rat pancreatic acinar cells as to the ultrastructure, cytosolic Ca2+ concentration and energy metabolism.

Methods: Acinar cells were exposed to an oxygen radical-generating system consisting of xanthine oxidase, hypoxanthine and chelated iron ions.

Cu/Zn-SOD in human pancreatic tissue and pancreatic juice.

Conclusion: Cu/Zn-SOD is present in pancreatic juice and tissue. Immunohistochemical studies reveal a localization of this enzyme in islet, duct, and centroacinar cells, but to a much lower extent in pancreatic acinar cells.

Background: It is generally accepted that oxygen radicals are involved in the pathogenesis of acute and chronic pancreatitis.

Similar morphological and intracellular biochemical changes in alcoholic acute pancreatitis and ischemic acute pancreatitis in rats.

Pancreatic hyperstimulation with simultaneous duct obstruction does not cause the typical features of acute pancreatitis, therefore the role of an additional challenge, such as either ethanol intoxication or short-term ischemia, was studied. Alcoholic pancreatitis was induced in 28 rats by acute ethanol intoxication (0.25 LD50) and an obstruction/hyperstimulation mechanism (clip of the biliopancreatic duct for 20 min and intravenous stimulation with 5 U of cholecystokinin and secretin each).

Oxygen radical generation and acute pancreatitis: effects of dibutyltin dichloride/ethanol and ethanol on rat pancreas.

Recent studies suggest that enhanced release of free oxygen radicals plays an important role in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis. Therefore, we studied the activity of the oxygen radical generating xanthine oxidase (XOD) in pancreatic tissue from rats treated with either dibutyltin dichloride/ethanol (DBTC/EtOH: 6 mg kg-1/13.7 mg kg-1, i.

[Modification of alcohol-induced pancreatic damage in rats by soybean diet].

Alcohol-induced hypersecretion probably contributes to chronic alcoholic pancreatitis. Feeding of raw soybean flour or soybean trypsin inhibitor also stimulates protein secretion of the pancreas. Therefore, we tested whether or not the pancreatic damage is increased by additional feeding of raw soybean flour in rats fed 20% ethanol.

[Excretory pancreas function. Secretion of protein, calcium and citrate in probands with a normal pancreas and in patients with chronic pancreatitis].

Recent studies described an increased concentration of protein and calcium in association with a decreased concentration of citrate in pancreatic juice of patients suffering from chronic pancreatitis. These secretory changes may be of importance in the pathogenesis of chronic pancreatitis. The present study investigates pancreatic juices of 18 patients without pancreatic disease and 12 patients in an early phase of chronic pancreatitis in order to detect changes of the exocrine function of the pancreas in an early stage of the disease.

[Correlation between acinar cell fat accumulation and secretory capacity of the rat pancreas in the early stage of alcohol-induced pancreatopathy].

In patients exhibiting chronic alcohol abuse, the accumulation of fat droplets in pancreatic acinar cells, as well as changes in pancreatic secretion, can be interpreted as early signs of pancreatic damage. Using rats, (the animals were fed for 9 +/- 1 months with a solution of 20% v/v ethanol, combined with either a normal or a fat enhanced diet) we tested whether or not these symptoms are related both to each other and to morphological lesions of the tissue. Based on six separate histological criteria, the lesions were classified into five stages of severity.

[Enzymatic determination of glandular kallikrein in human pancreatic secretions].

A method for the enzymatic determination of tissue kallikrein (EC 3.4. 21.

[Lymph drainage disorder as a pathogenetic co-factor in acute pancreatitis?].

Experiments performed on 71 Wistar rats confirm that preexisting interruption of lymph drainage by ligation of the ductus thoracicus can have a major influence on the development of pancreatitis. The effect of a ductus hepatopancreaticus blockade in experimental group A (32 animals) was greatly exacerbated by previous ligation of the ductus thoracicus (experimental group B; 34 animals). Edema of the interstitial pancreatic tissue led to lipolytic necrotizing pancreatitis with a slight hemorrhagic component, increasing ascites after the 12 th hour of the experiment, and numerous abdominal fat necroses after about 19 hours, but only relatively minor necroses of acinar parenchyma cells in the pancreas.

Encapsulation of liver microsomes--a further procedure for detoxication.

Due to their partial permeability and their good mechanical properties, the symplex capsules are technically suited for an application in extracorporal detoxification. By this newly developed procedure the activity of encapsulated enzymes is considerably increased; thus, application for extracorporal detoxification seems to be advisable.

[An improved method for the microencapsulation of liver microsomes for use in extracorporeal detoxication].

Rat liver microsomes were microencapsulated in a pure aqueous medium by means of a new technique. The wall of the microcapsules consists of a semipermeable simplex membrane which is stabilized mainly by electrostatic interactions between a polymeric polyanion (sodium cellulose sulphate) and a polymeric polycation (polydimethyldiallylammonium chloride). The metabolic as well as the mechanic parameters of the microcapsules could be markedly improved by separating the metabolic (liver microsomes) from the membrane component (sodium cellulose sulphate) in such a way that two distinct compartments are formed during the preparation of the microcapsules.

The Erlangen micro-lightguide spectrophotometer EMPHO I.

The Erlangen micro-lightguide spectrophotometer EMPHO 1 was designed for fast diffuse reflection (remission) spectrophotometry in small tissue volumes. The aim was to construct a compact, modular instrument with a high repetition rate which can be adapted to moving organs, e.g.

[Comparative observations of internal and external quality controls in the districts of Neubrandenburg and Rostock].

A useful combination of results from internal quality control and external quality assessment is possible only if the statistical procedures of both systems involve the same limits to accept control data. These limits are shown. For 45 laboratories expected quality groups QG-T are calculated from results of internal quality control.

[The determination of trypsin activity in duodenal fluid with N alpha-(p-toluenesulfonyl)-L-arginine-p-nitranilide (L-TAPA)].

The conditions are optimized for the determination of trypsin activity in duodenal juice at 37 degrees C using L-TAPA as a substrate ("Bio-La-Test Trypsin", Lachema, CSSR). Most of the directions of the kit could be accepted, but optimal pH was 0.4 units below that described there.

[The pH dependence of lipase and trypsin activity].

We investigated in-vitro the relation of the lipase and trypsin activity, containing in native duodenale juice, to pH-values, similar to them registered in the duodenum of patients with severe exocrine insufficiency. Therefore week alcaline duodenal juice was acidified by native gastric juice or hydrochloric acid to pH-value 7, 6, 5 und 4. The remaining activity was estimated after 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes.

Significance of disturbed lymph flow for the pathogenesis of pancreatitis. I. Ligature of the ductus thoracicus in the rat.

To examine the significance of a disturbed lymph drainage for the pathogenesis of acute necrotizing pancreatitis, thoracic duct ligation was performed in 53 Wistar rats. Histological examination of the pancreas and analysis of serum lipase and serum amylase were carried out at various time intervals from 1 h to 42 days after initiating the experiment. Sudden stop of the lymph flow induced a long lasting pancreatic edema, initially in the perilobular interstitium and eventually also within some lobules, with scattered necroses of whole acini or single acinar cells mainly in the peripheral zones of the lobuli.

[Studies of pure human pancreatic juice].

The test-combination from Fa. Boehringer Mannheim GmbH for measuring citric acid present in foodstuffs is also suitable for use in human pancreatic juice. Accuracy, within-run and between-day imprecision are satisfactory.