The mechanisms linking acinar cell apoptosis and ductal epithelial proliferation remain unknown. To determine the relationship between these events, pancreatic duct ligation (PDL) was performed on p53(+/+) and p53(-/-) mice. In mice bearing a wild-type p53 allele, PDL resulted in upregulation of p53 protein in both acinar cells and proliferating duct-like epithelium. In contrast, upregulation o...

Normal tissue architecture is disrupted following injury, as resident tissue cells become damaged and immune cells are recruited to the site of injury. While injury and inflammation are critical to tissue remodeling, the inability to resolve this response can lead to the destructive complications of chronic inflammation. In the pancreas, acinar cells of the exocrine compartment respond to injur...

Rosado, Juan A., Pedro C. Redondo, Ginés M. Salido, Stewart O. Sage, and Jose A. Pariente. Cleavage of SNAP-25 and VAMP-2 impairs store-operated Ca entry in mouse pancreatic acinar cells. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 288: C214–C221, 2005. First published September 8; doi:10.1152/ajpcell.00241.2004.—We recently reported that store-operated Ca entry (SOCE) in nonexcitable cells is likely to be media...

Physiological calcium (Ca(2+)) signals within the pancreatic acinar cell regulate enzyme secretion, whereas aberrant Ca(2+) signals are associated with acinar cell injury. We have previously identified the ryanodine receptor (RyR), a Ca(2+) release channel on the endoplasmic reticulum, as a modulator of these pathological signals. In the present study, we establish that the RyR is expressed in ...

The roles of inflammatory macrophages in pancreatic tissue and the development of pancreatic cancer have not been well characterized. Recently it was shown that inflammatory macrophages, besides their function in clearing dead cells, also initiate pancreatic acinar cell metaplasia to duct-like progenitor cells. While in pancreatitis this is a reversible process, in context of an oncogenic stimu...