Dynamic changes of cytokines and the effect of pioglitazone on them in early stage of severe acute pancreatitis

Objective　To observe the dynamic changes and significances of TNF-α， IL-6 and IL-10 in severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) rats， and assess the effect of pretreatment with pioglitazone on them.Methods　54 male Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats were randomly divided into sham group(C group)， SAP group， and pioglitazone group(P group). (1) SAP group was induced by the retrograde injection of sodium taurocholate (STC) in the pancreatic duct (n＝18)； (2) P group (same as SAP group， but pioglitazone(50 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally two hours prior to STC(n＝18)； (3) Sham operation group. Sham-operated animals served as control. Operation was executed， STC was not injected， but pancreas was flipped and striked gently three times. Rats were killed by abdominal aorta exsanguination at 3 h， 6 h and 12 h after the induction of pancreatitis. Serum activities of amylase were measured， the concentrations of inflammatory cyctokines (TNF-α，IL-6 and IL-10) of the blood were measured by ELISA and pancreatic histologic score were assessed.Results　Compared with C group， pancreatic histologic score， serum amylase， TNF-α and IL-6 in SAP group were increased significantly (P<0.01) except IL-10 level(P＞0.05). Pretreatment with pioglitazone obviously decreased histologic score and the serum level of amylase， TNF-α， IL-6， and the level of IL-10 was higher than SAP group in early SAP(P<0.05). Conclusions　Cytokines play an important role in early progress of SAP； pioglitazone could attenuate the severity of inflammatory response through regulating the balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines.