Effect of pancreatic duct ligation on the hamster intestinal mucosa. Variation of several hydrolases.

Hamster intestinal hydrolase activities were studied after pancreatic duct ligation for periods of 5, 7, 10, 15 and 30 days. From the 7th to the 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 to the 15th day with a maximal level at the 7th day. The increased levels of brush-border enzymes observed here are not in accordance with our description of villous atrophy after pancreatic duct ligation in the hamster. On the other hand, the important increase in lysozyme activity is in good agreement with hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the Paneth cells which we observed during our morphological study. The morphological and biochemical findings on hamster small intestine confirm the effects of exocrine pancreatic secretion both on differentiation and on enzymatic levels of the mucosa. Besides, 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.