Alcohol and the pancreas.

Chronic pancreatitis is frequently observed in men drinking approximately 2 g-kg-1 day-1 during a mean of 17 years. The diet of these patients is abnormally rich in fat and protein. Giving alcohol and a similar diet to dogs and rats, it has been possible to reproduce chronic alcoholic pancreatitis. In men, dogs and rats, the first lesion seems to be the precipitation of the normal proteins of pancreatic juice into the ducts. Experimentally, chronic alcohol consumption is responsible for the section of a pancreatic juice which has an abnormally high concentration of proteins. This functional modification is partly hormonal but mostly due to cholinergic nerves.