Active pancreatic digestive enzymes show striking differences in their potential to damage isolated rat pancreatic...

Active digestive enzymes are involved in the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis. Previous studies have mainly focused on the role of trypsin in the autodigestive process. The present study compares the noxious potential of different pancreatic enzymes to damage acinar cells. Acinar cells were isolated from rat pancreas by collagenase digestion. Cell viability was studied by (1) exclusion of trypan blue, (2) release of lactate dehydrogenase, and (3) release of newly synthesized proteins identified with methionine labeled with sulfur 35. Cells were then incubated in oxygenated N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N-'-2-ethanesulfonic acid-Ringer solution containing different concentrations of various active digestive enzymes. Uptake of trypan blue was the most sensitive and reliable test of cell damage when compared with release of lactate dehydrogenase or radiolabeled newly synthesized proteins. All active digestive enzymes studied caused dose-dependent cell damage. The noxious potential, however, was strikingly different for the various enzymes. Pancreatic elastase in nanomolar concentrations caused marked cell damage after 45 to 90 minutes of incubation. Lipase and chymotrypsin caused a similar damage only at micromolar concentrations, whereas even millimolar concentrations of trypsin failed to cause significant damage. The present results confirmed recent work showing that lipase and phospholipase A2 probably cause cell damage through release of free fatty acids and lysolecithin. Although activation of trypsin might be the trigger to start the activation cascade in acute pancreatitis, trypsin itself is markedly less noxious to acinar cells when compared with other digestive enzymes. Elastase by far had the greatest noxious potential of all enzymes evaluated. Studies analyzing therapeutic effects of protease inhibitors should evaluate not only the inhibitory potential against trypsin but also that against other digestive enzymes, particularly elastase.