Effect of Pancreatic Duct Ligation on the Hamster Intestinal Mucosa

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Hamster intestinal hydrolase activities were studied after pancreatic duct ligation for periods of 5, 7, 10, 15 and 30 days. From the 7th-10th day, maltase and sucrase were significantly increased in the jejunoileum. Higher levels were observed on day 7 in the duodenum for all the brush-border enzyme activities (maltase, sucrase, aminopeptidase, alkaline phosphatase). Intestinal lysozyme significantly increased from the 5th-15th day with a maximal level at the 7th day. The increased levels of brush-border enzymes observed here are not in accordance with the description of villous atrophy after pancreatic duct ligation in the hamster. The important increase in lysozyme activity is in good agreement with hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the Paneth cells which were observed during the morphological study. The morphological and biochemical findings on hamster small intestine confirm the effects of exocrine pancreatic secretion on differentiation and on enzymatic levels of the mucosa. This experiment agrees with the direct desorbing action of the pancreatic juice on the brush border and suggests another hypothetical mechanism, still worth being investigated, to explain increased brush-border activities in the duodenum and increased levels of lysozyme in the jejunoileum.