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(Ivanhoe Newswire) Scientists are learning more about how the painful abdominal condition known as pancreatitis may get started.
The key may be a process called autophagy in which cells succumb to a form of self-cannibalism in order to survive.
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The investigators already knew pancreatitis occurs when the enzyme trypsin dissolves cells from within. Typically, the pancreas in an inactive form called trypsinogen, which remains inert until it gets to the small intestine, releases this enzyme. But when it converts to trypsin before leaving the pancreas, pancreatitis is the result.
To find out if autophagy was coming into play, the researchers compared mice with a normal gene for autophagy with mice that lacked the gene for the process.
Mice without the autophagy gene remained relatively symptom free, even after they were injected with a substance known to cause pancreatitis. Normal mice suffered severe damage to their pancreas.
The authors believe these findings are the first to show the seemingly normal process of autophagy can actually cause a disease. Now they hope to find out why pancreatic cells begin self-cannibalizing in the first place.
SOURCE: Journal of Cell Biology, published online June 30, 2008
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