ABSTRACT
Pancreatitis .......................................................................... 293 14.3.4 Acinar Cell Events during Cerulein-Induced
Pancreatitis .......................................................................... 293 14.3.4.1 Events Related to Acinar Cell Injury................. 295 14.3.4.2 Proinflammatory Events ..................................... 297
14.3.4.3 Sequence of Acinar Cell Events ........................ 297 14.3.5 Pancreatitis-Related Effects of Acetylcholine
and Secretin ........................................................................ 300 14.3.5.1 Acetylcholine....................................................... 300 14.3.5.2 Secretin ................................................................ 301
14.4 Hormone-Induced Growth and Neoplasia .................................... 301 14.5 Epilogue............................................................................................ 302 References .................................................................................................. 303
Recently, considerable progress has been made in achieving a molecular understanding of the events that underlie many of the toxic effects of hormones and hormonelike compounds on the pancreas. For the most part, these toxic effects appear to be primarily exerted on the exocrine rather than the endocrine pancreas. Among the large number of hormones and hormonelike factors that are known to affect pancreatic function, only the toxic effects of a selected few have been studied to any depth. In those studies, which have mostly been performed using experimental animals, the toxic effects of cholecystokin, cholecystokinin analogs, acetylcholine, secretin, and the administration of a soya protein-enriched diet (which exerts its toxic effects via release of endogenous cholecystokinin) have been evaluated. Furthermore, studies utilizing experimental laboratory animals have explored the molecular events that underlie the development of these toxic effects. In some cases, toxicity is manifest by an inflammatory process (i.e., pancreatitis), and in others, toxicity reflects the growth-promoting effects of the agent and it results in hypertrophy, hyperplasia, and neoplasia. In this chapter, I will review the mechanisms by which these hormones and hormonelike factors regulate the pancreas under physiological conditions and current concepts regarding the mechanisms by which these agents exert toxic effects on the pancreas.
