Mitochondrial dynamics and mitophagy in acute pancreatitis.

VANASCO VIRGINIA; ALVAREZ SILVIA; ROPOLO ALEJANDRO; GRASSO DANIEL; VACCARO MARÍA INÉS

Liverpool

Congreso; 48th EPC Scientific Meeting; 2016

European Pancreatic Club

Introduction: Autophagy is an early protective mechanism during acute pancreatitis (AP), and specific types of selective autophagy, such as zymophagy, are early activated in acinar cells as a protective mechanism. Autophagy is energy consuming and adequate mitochondrial bioenergetics would be indispensable to sustain autophagy during disease.Aims: We analyze the mitochondrial dynamics, function and mitophagy during experimental AP.Materials & methods: Animal model: Sprague-Dawley rats injected with i.p.50mg/kg caerulein (CAE) at 1h intervals. Cellular model: AR42J pancreatic acinar-cells treated with 7.4uMCAE.Results: Animal model: zymophagy is confirmed by VMP1, P62 and LC3 expression. OPA1 (fusion protein) and DRP1 (fission protein) suggest mitochondrial elongation during experimental AP. Both, OPA1 and DRP1 expression disappear after 1h of pancreatitis. However, OPA1 recovers in a time course towards 48h AP. Moreover, mitochondrial function is decreased early during experimental AP. Mitochondrial O2 consumption and ATP production decrease in 35 and 70% respectively after 1h (p