Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of lazaroid effects on severe acute pancreatitis in rats.

Objectives: To evaluate the therapeutic potential of lazaroids in severe necrotizing acute pancreatitis and to investigate the association between oxidative stress, protease activation, and local production of proinflammatory cytokines and the severity and lethality of the disease.

Background: Oxidative stress is a crucial factor in the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis and its systemic complications. Treatment with antioxidants, however, failed to improve survival in most studies performed so far.

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).

A method for in vivo assessment of reversible rat pancreatic ischemia using 31P NMR spectroscopy at 2.0 tesla.

A surgical method is described which allows in vivo assessment of reversible rat pancreatic ischemia using 31P NMR spectroscopy at 2.0 T. Phosphorous-31 NMR spectra acquired during the ischemic period show the expected increase in inorganic phosphate with a concomitant decrease in ATP levels and pH as compared to controls.

[Mechanisms for cell damage in acute pancreatitis using isolated acinar cells].

Due to the complexity of interacting organ systems, in vivo the interpretation of results obtained from whole-animal experiments of acute pancreatitis remains difficult. To enlighten cause-and-effect-relationships, functional isolated parts of the pancreas are applied increasingly in research into the pathogenesis of the disease, therefore. By means of a collagenase digestion technique, intact acinar cells from normal as well as from pretreated rat pancreas could reproducibly be obtained in high yield.

Influence of stepwise uncoupling and temporary anoxia on pancreatic enzyme secretion by isolated rat acini.

For special studies on pancreatic diseases a parameter is needed to record alterations of the cellular energy metabolism. In the in vitro model of isolated pancreatic acini, we investigated whether or not at standardized cholecystokinin stimulation the energy-consuming process of enzyme secretion can be used to monitor changes of the energy-supplying capacity. Rat pancreatic acini were isolated via collagenase digestion and characterized by basal and stimulated release of amylase and trypsin, oxygen uptake under resting and maximally uncoupled conditions and by their ability to accumulate actively rhodamine-6G, as a measure of the mitochondrial membrane potential.