Changes of mast cells during severe acute pancreatitis

Objective:To study the pathological change and possible role of mast cells (MC) during the course of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). Methods: Fifteen healthy male rats were randomized into 3 groups: control group( n =5), SAP 3 h group( n =5) and SAP 6 h group( n =5). SAP was induced by the intraductal infusion of 5% sodium taurodeoxycholate into the rats. The toluidine blue staining and Western blot method were used to observe the quantity and activity change of MC. The pancreatic tissue damage was also evaluated histologically. Results: MC significantly increased to 6.55±1.06/field of vision at 3 h after the induction of SAP, which was much higher than that of control. While at 6 h after the induction, the density of MC decreased significantly to 2.20±0.52/field of vision, which was obviously lower than that of the 3 h group. The gray degree of tryptase strap in the tissue of pancreas was 185.4±3.6 in the SAP 3 h group and 166.5±6.2 in the SAP 6 h group, and there were no significant differences between the 2 groups, while both were higher than that of the control group( P 0.05). The pathological score of SAP 3 h group (6.4±0.5) and SAP 6 h group(12.0±0.5) were both higher than that of the control( P 0.05). And the damage of pancreas aggravated with the change of time. Conclusion: MC may increase significantly during the early stage of SAP, which may take part in the earlier period of the SAP progress.