Camostat mesilate (CM), an oral protease inhibitor, has been used clinically for the treatment of chronic pancreatitis in Japan. However, the mechanism by which it operates has not been fully understood. Our aim was to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of CM in the experimental pancreatic fibrosis model induced by dibutyltin dichloride (DBTC), and we also determined the effect of CM on isolated monocytes and panceatic stellate cells (PSCs). In vivo, chronic pancreatitis was induced in male Lewis rats by single administration of 7 mg/kg DBTC and a special diet containing 1 mg/g CM was fed to the DBTC þ CM-treated group from day 7, while the DBTC-treated group rats were fed a standard diet. At days 0, 7, 14 and 28, the severity of pancreatitis and fibrosis was examined histologically and enzymologically in both groups. In vitro, monocytes were isolated from the spleen of a Lewis rat, and activated with lipopolysaccharide stimulation. Thereafter, the effect of CM on monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) production from monocytes was examined. Subsequently, cultured rat PSCs were exposed to CM and tested to see whether their proliferation, MCP-1 production and procollagen a1 messenger RNA expression was influenced by CM. In vivo, the oral administration of CM inhibited inflammation, cytokines expression and fibrosis in the pancreas. The in vitro study revealed that CM inhibited both MCP-1 and TNF-a production from monocytes, and proliferation and MCP-1 production from PSCs. However, procollagen a1 expression in PSCs was not influenced by CM. These results suggest that CM attenuated DBTC-induced rat pancreatic fibrosis via inhibition of monocytes and PSCs activity.
These results suggest that this experimental model of pancreatic fibrosis induced by DBTC in rats was useful as a chronic pancreatitis model and that MCP-1 may play an important role in the development of pancreatic fibrosis.
The effects of dexamethasone, a synthetic glucocorticoid, on membrane excitability and on the acetylcholine (ACh)-induced inward current (IACh) were studied in dispersed guinea pig adrenal medullary cells by using the whole cell version of the patch-clamp technique. Bath application of 10 microM dexamethasone had no effect on the resting membrane conductance or voltage-gated Na+, Ca2+, or K+ channels, whereas it reversibly inhibited the IACh at a holding potential of -70 mV. Intracellular application of dexamethasone through the patch electrode did not modify the IACh. Application of 10 microM dexamethasone neither shifted the dose-response curve of the peak IACh to the right [dissociation constant (Kd) = 50 microM] nor affected its Hill coefficient (1.2) but inhibited the current amplitudes by approximately 41% in the cells sufficiently pretreated with dexamethasone. Furthermore, fractional inhibition of the IACh at the end of approximately 50-s application was the same for any concentration of ACh (3-100 microM). The dose-response curve of the inhibition by dexamethasone showed a good fit to the theoretical line assuming an inhibition constant (Ki) of 10 microM and a Hill coefficient of 1. Hydrocortisone 21-hemisuccinate sodium salt (25 microM) and prednisolone 21-hemisuccinate sodium salt (25 microM) inhibited the IACh to a lesser extent than 25 microM dexamethasone. These results suggest that dexamethasone binds to the specific site on the outer cell membrane, probably on the ACh receptor-coupled channel, and inhibits the IACh in a noncompetitive manner, thus controlling the immediate catecholamine release from the adrenal medulla.
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome was sought in the saliva of 76 chronic HCV carriers (mean age nearly 60 years) in a rural Japanese town, who had high serum titers of c-100 and anti-core second generation antibodies. In 27 samples (27 cases, 36%), the HCV-RNA genome was detected by the reverse transcriptase - polymerase chain reaction with either of two sets of primers covering two regions of the HCV genome: the 5'noncoding region and the region encompassing the putative envelope (E1). Transaminase values at the time of sampling were higher in the patients with than in those without detectable HCV RNA in saliva (p = 0.04 for alanine aminotransferase, p = 0.04 for aspartate aminotransferase; Wilcoxon test). The prevalence of the positivity was higher by 5'noncoding primers (14/59 vs. 15/68). Our data show that the severity and duration of hepatic dysfunction influence the detectability of the HCV genome in the saliva. This has been a controversial point among investigators.
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