The exocrine pancreas displays a significant capacity for regeneration and renewal. In humans and mammalian model systems, the partial loss of exocrine tissue, such as after acute pancreatitis or partial pancreatectomy induces rapid recovery via expansion of surviving acinar cells. In mouse it was further found that an almost complete removal of acinar cells initiates regeneration from a curren...

Heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) has been suggested to participate in the cell proliferation and differentiation during tissue development. In fact, we have demonstrated the transient occurrence of Hsp27 during the differentiation of salivary gland acinar cells in postnatal rats. The purpose of the present study is to explore the potential role of Hsp27 in the proliferation and differentiation of ...

We investigated the apoptotic pathway activated by crambene (1-cyano-2-hydroxy-3-butene), a plant nitrile, on pancreatic acinar cells. As evidenced by annexin V-FITC staining, crambene treatment for 3 h induced the apoptosis but not necrosis of pancreatic acini. Caspase-3, -8, and -9 activities in acini treated with crambene were significantly higher than in untreated acini. Treatment with casp...

The role of miRNA processing in the maintenance of adult pancreatic acinar cell identity and during the initiation and progression of pancreatic neoplasia has not been studied in detail. In this work, we deleted Dicer specifically in adult pancreatic acinar cells, with or without simultaneous activation of oncogenic Kras. We found that Dicer is essential for the maintenance of acinar cell ident...

Understanding the initiation and progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) may provide therapeutic strategies for this deadly disease. Recently, we and others made the surprising finding that PDAC and its preinvasive precursors, pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN), arise via reprogramming of mature acinar cells. We therefore hypothesized that the master regulator of acinar...

We have used ‘251-laheled vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) to study the kinetics, stoichiometry, and chemical specificity with which the labeled peptide binds to dispersed acinar cells prepared from guinea pig pancreas. Binding of ‘2”I-VIP to pancreatic acinar cells was moderately rapid, reversible, specific, saturable, and depended on incubation temperature. Deterioration of ‘2sI-VIP incuba...

To explore the cellular fragility of pancreatic acinar cells in the early stage after partial hepatectomy, we evaluated the subcellular redistribution of lysosomal enzyme, lysosomal fragility in acinar cells, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) discharge from acinar cells and the pancreatic water content in rats 4 days after about 70% hepatectomy. Following hepatectomy, there was redistribution of lyso...

Pancreatitis-associated ascitic fluid (PAAF) is known to contribute to the progression of acute pancreatitis (AP). We have investigated the capability of PAAF to activate the expression of MCP-1 in pancreatic acinar cells and the involvement of MAPK, NF-kappaB and STAT3 as downstream signalling transduction pathways. The actions of dexamethasone (Dx) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on the PAAF's aci...

Pancreatic regeneration after caerulein-induced pancreatitis is characterized by transient fibroblast proliferation followed by replication of acinar cells. The mechanisms that coordinate regeneration are incompletely understood. In this study, we examine the role of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). Acute edematous pancreatitis was induced in rats by 12 h caerulein infusion. Pancreatic IGF...

Using a dominant-negative mutant receptor (DNR) approach in transgenic mice, we have functionally inactivated transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) signaling in select epithelial cells. The dominant-negative mutant type II TGF-beta receptor blocked signaling by all three TGF-beta isoforms in primary hepatocyte and pancreatic acinar cell cultures generated from transgenic mice, as demonstra...