Studies on serum immunoreactive elastase in experimental pancreatic rats. II. In chronic pancreatitis.

In this study using radioimmunoassay for rat, the relationship between the changes of elastase levels and the histological changes of pancreas demonstrated in two different cases of experimental chronic pancreatitis induced by dl-ethionine or PDL technique, and the resulting elastase levels were compared with amylase levels. In some of the Ethionine rats, serum elastase showed a high level, whereas serum amylase exhibited a significant decrease. In PDL rats at 3 days after ligation, elastase levels were higher than in other control rats. In PDL rats at 2, 4, and 8 weeks after ligation, serum elastase levels had significantly decreased, whereas amylase levels had not changes significantly when compared with the control rats. The changes of serum elastase levels in two different cases of experimental chronic pancreatitis showed some relation to the histological changes of the pancreas, while changes in serum amylase levels were not exhibited.