Vascular chronic-fibrosing pancreatitis of the rat after 5/6-nephrectomy

The pancreases of 77 uremic rats of a Wistar strain were investigated light-microscopically in groups of 5 animals at 11 different times between one day and ten weeks after 5/6-nephrectomy. The serum concentration of urea reached a maximum mean value of 375 mg% after three days; during the stage of chronic uremia the mean value was found to be 175 mg%. The blood pressure increased in the third week after 5/6-nephrectomy and reached in the course of the experiment values of up to 200 mm Hg and more. Histologically, after an initial acute interstitial pancreatitis with focal dystrophies of the exocrine parenchyma which was virtually cured by the 14th day of the experiment, an increasing proliferative-exudative and granulomatous vasculopathy appeared at the end of the third week. This was followed by a perivascular transmitted chronic-fibrosing pancreatitis which may be regarded as a model of vascularly induced pancreatitis. Early damage by uremia and initial pancreatitis, the rapidly developing hypertension and allergical and autoallergical reactions are discussed as aetiological complex for the vascular alterations. The typical findings of the uremic pancreatopathy, well-known in human pathology, are not reproducible.