Hyperlipemia and early pancreatic injury induced by ethanol intake in rats

The pathogenesis of alcoholic pancreatitis is unknown, and even though hype rlipemia has been hypothesized to be a risk factor for alcoholic pancreatit is, no studies directly investigating whether there is a relationship betwe en the two have ever been reported. Therefore, to determine if a relationsh ip exists between hyperlipemia and alcoholic pancreatitis, especially the e arly stage of alcoholic pancreatic injury, we administered a regular liquid Lieber-DeCarli diet, with and without ethanol as 35% of total calories, to rats for 2 wk. Thereafter we measured their plasma lipid concentrations, p ancreatic zymogen granule fragility and plasma lipase activity and subseque ntly investigated the correlations between these parameters. Significant in creases in plasma triglyceride, total cholesterol, phospholipid, nonesterif ied fatty acid, pancreatic zymogen granule fragility, and plasma lipase act ivity were observed in the ethanol liquid diet group, compared with the val ues of the control liquid diet group, and pancreatic zymogen granule fragil ity was correlated with plasma triglyceride (r=0.62), total cholesterol (r= 0.77), phospholipid (r=0.76), nonesterified fatty acid concentrations (r=0. 62), and lipase activity (r=0.63), These results show a possible relationsh ip between hyperlipemia and the early stage of alcoholic pancreatic injury, and they may support the hypothesis that hyperlipemia contributes to the e tiology of alcoholic pancreatitis.