Pancreatic Acinar Cells Submitted to Stress Activate TNF-a Gene Expression

VACCARO MI; ROPOLO A; GRASSO D; CALVO EL; FERRERIA M; IOVANNA JL; LANOSA G

BIOCHEMICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Academic Press

Lugar: London, UK.; Año: 2000 vol. 268 p. 485 - 490

0006-291X

Este trabajo fue citado 24 veces segun Scopus que marca un indice h de 14 al 2 de noviembre de 2012To elucidate whether pancreatic acinar cell submitted to stress is able to express TNF-alpha, we studied TNF-alpha mRNA expression by Northern blot and in situ hybridization in healthy pancreas, in tissue from caerulein-induced pancreatitis and after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment. In specimens from normal pancreas, TNF-alpha mRNA expression, judged by both Northern blot and in situ hybridization, was negative, whereas a strong but transient expression was observed in acinar cells from caerulein pancreatitis and LPS treatment. TNF-alpha mRNA appeared as rapidly as 30 min after treatment, and was maximal 6 h after. At this time, there was mild infiltration consisting mostly of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) and no signal of TNF-alpha transcript was found in their cytoplasm. Our results strongly indicate that pancreatic acinar cell is the source of TNF-alpha early in the course of acute pancreatitis and LPS treatment, and suggest that the expression of this cytokine is a part of a general response of the acinar cell to aggression.