Alcoholic bile does not intensify acute pancreatitis in rats

The toxicity of intraductal injections of normal bile, bile obtained from rats receiving ethanol i.v., and normal bile mixed with ethanol at a concentration of 1.5 g/l to the pancreas were tested using male Wistar rats (n = 60). The animals were killed by exsanguinating the abdominal aorta 24 h after the induction of acute pancreatitis by a retrograde infusion into the pancreatic ducts, the pancreases resected, and histological samples taken from the constant place of the pancreas. The histological specimens were classified according to the degree of severity of pancreatitis. No statistically significant differences in the severity of acute pancreatitis were observed between the groups. In conclusion, ethanol given i.v. or ethanol mixed with normal rat bile do not increase the toxicity of an intraductal bile injection to the pancreas. Thus, the previously observed increased toxicity of alcoholic bile obtained from chronic alcoholic rats must be mediated by a change of some metabolites of bile.