脾虚大鼠胰岛胰多肽免疫阳性物质分布变化

脾虚证的临床表现以消化系统功能障碍为主,其中胰腺外分泌功能减退明显,且伴有食欲与体质量的显著下降.胰多肽(PP)是胰岛周边F细胞分泌的主要胃肠激素,对胰腺外分泌功能与食欲的调节有抑制作用,可导致氧化代谢增强,引起体质量下降.本试验旨在揭示大鼠胰岛胰多肽分泌变化与脾虚证发病之间的关系.笔者以利血平脾虚大鼠模型为研究对象,采用SP染色进行免疫组织化学研究,观察大鼠胰岛中胰多肽免疫阳性物质的分布情况.脾虚组与对照组的大鼠胰岛中胰多肽免疫阳性物质面积与胰岛面积百分比相比,胰头部分未见明显差异(P＞0.05);但脾虚组胰中、胰尾的PP免疫阳性物质所占面积极显著大于对照组(P＜0.01).结果表明,脾虚证大鼠胰岛中胰多肽总分泌量极显著增加.因此,胰多肽的分泌增加是导致脾虚证动物出现胰腺外分泌功能低下、食欲减退以及体质量下降的主要因素.     

半胱胺对鹅胰液分泌及其脂肪酶活性的影响

12只装有胰腺 -十二指肠长久性瘘管的成年鹅 ,圈养 ,夜间 (2 0 :0 0～ 8:0 0 )禁食 ,随意饮水。试验采用前后自身对照 ,试验期在日粮中每千克体重一次性添加半胱胺 10 0 mg。连续计量 3d对照期和 8d试验期的胰液分泌速率并测定其中胰脂肪酶活性。结果表明 ,添加半胱胺后 :1胰液连续 7d的分泌速率较对照期极显著上升 ,幅度为 71.2 8%～ 399.77% ,其中白天升高了 4 0 .80 %～ 4 5 6 .0 9% ,夜间增高了 14 3.74 %～ 311.4 2 % ;2单位容积胰脂肪酶的平均活性较对照均有不同程度的下降 ,变化幅度具有昼夜的差别 :白天在第 3～ 5天和第 7天有升高的趋势 (P>0 .0 5 ) ,而夜间则显著低于对照 ;3每小时胰液中的脂肪酶总活性在第 1～ 5天显著高于对照 (P<0 .0 1) ,且白天增加的幅度较夜晚大。说明半胱胺能促进鹅胰液的分泌 ,增加其中脂肪酶分泌的总量 ,加强成年鹅对脂肪的消化 ,满足在半胱胺调节下快速生长时对营养物质消化和能量的需求。     

Physiology of fish endocrine pancreas

From the very beginning of physiological studies on the endocine pancreas, fish have been used as experimental subjects. Fish insulin was one of the first vertebrate insulins isolated and one of the first insulins whose primary and then tertiary structures were reported. Before a second pancreatic hormone, glucagon, was characterized, a physiologically active ‘impurity’, similar to that in mammalian insulin preparations, was found in fish insulins. Fish have become the most widely used model for studies of biosynthesis and processing of the pancreatic hormones. It seems inconceivable, therefore, that until the recent past cod and tuna insulins have been the only purified piscine islet hormones available for physiological experiments. The situation has changed remarkably during the last decade. In this review the contemporary status of physiological studies on the fish pancreas is outlined with an emphasis on the following topics: 1) contents of pancreatic peptides in plasma and in islet tissue; 2) actions of piscine pancreatic hormones in fish; 3) specific metabolic consequences of an acute insufficiency of pancreatic peptides; 4) functional interrelations among pancreatic peptides which differ from those of mammals. The pitfalls, lacunae and the perspectives of contemporary physiological studies on fish endocrine pancreas are outlined.     

Characterization of a pancreatic DNase from pyloric caeca of atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.)

An alkaline deoxyribonuclease (DNase) from cod pancreatic tissue has been characterized. The enzyme is a DNase I type endonuclease and hydrolyzes effectively both native and denatured DNA. Monomeric actin inhibits the enzyme reaction. The enzyme obeys Michaelis-Menten kinetics and the apparent K_m value for native linear duplex DNA is 33 µg/ml. The cod DNase opens supercoiled plasmid DNA, by introducing adjacent nicks in both strands, possibly separated by 5–10 nucleotides. DNA hydrolyzed by cod DNase functions as substrates both for DNA polymerase and ligase, and the nicks therefore contain 5-phosphoryl and 3-hydroxyl groups. Optimum concentrations of divalent cations are 5 mM Mg²⁺, 0.63 mM Mn²⁺ and 0.075 mM Ca²⁺. However, Ca²⁺ is apparently not essential for the enzymatic functions. The enzyme has a narrow temperature optimum at 42°C and is thermolabile above 50°C; however, Mn²⁺ shifts the optimum slightly to 45°C by causing increased temperature stability. The cod DNase reaction is inhibited by the DNA intercalating compounds actinomycin D and ethidium bromide. Histidine-modifying reagents such as tosyl phenylalanyl chloromethylketone and diethyl pyrocarbonate inhibit the enzyme activity, but the cod DNase is insensitive to disulfide-reducing agents.     

Aquabirnaviruses isolated from marine organisms form a distinct genogroup from other aquabirnaviruses

A phylogenetic tree of aquabirnaviruses, including marine birnaviruses (MABV) and infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV), was developed based on the nucleotide sequences and deduced amino acid sequences of the polyprotein and VP5 genes of genomic segment A. In the polyprotein of MABV strains, the amino acid sequences were very similar, with identities of 98.3-99.7%. Twenty-one unique amino acid residues were found in the deduced amino acid sequences of the polyprotein gene of MABV strains. The phylogenetic tree based on the nucleotide sequence of genomic segment A and polyprotein sequences showed that 31 aquabirnavirus strains were clustered into seven genogroups. All MABV strains isolated in Japan and Korea were clustered into one genogroup which was distinct from other aquabirnaviruses. The seventh genogroup containing all MABV strains showed amino acid sequence similarities of 80.7-90.6% with other genogroups. In VP5, four unique residues were found in MABV strains when compared with IPNV strains. The MABV strains exhibited amino acid sequence similarities of 63.9-86.4% with IPNV strains. The amino acid sequences of VP5 were conserved among MABV strains, but differed from those of IPNV strains. The MABV strains isolated from different host species and different geographical areas were very similar to each other, suggesting that the MABV are distinct from the other genogroups.     

Developmental patterns of digestive enzyme activity in the stomach and pancreas of growing Jinhua and Landrace gilts

Abstract

The activities of amylase, trypsin and lipase in pancreas and the activity of pepsin in cardiac mucosa were measured in Jinhua and Landrace gilts at 35, 80 and 125 days of age, respectively. Jinhua gilts had lower total trypsin and total pepsin activities compared with Landrace gilts (P<0.01), and lower pepsin activity (per g of cardiac mucosa) at 80 days (P<0.05) and 125 days of age (P<0.01). In contrast, Jinhua gilts had higher amylase activity (per g of pancreas) and lipase activity (per kg of empty body weight) compared with Landrace gilts (P<0.001), and higher total amylase activity at 35 days (P<0.05) and 125 days (P<0.01) of age. Jinhua gilts had higher lipase activity (per g of pancreas) at 35 days (P<0.05), 80 days (P<0.01) and 125 (P<0.001) days of age.     

Feline exocrine pancreatic carcinoma: a retrospective study of 34 cases

Thirty‐four cases were reviewed in this retrospective study for information on clinical presentation, prognostic indicators, survival time and response to various therapies. The most common presenting clinical signs were weight loss, decreased appetite, vomiting, palpable abdominal mass and diarrhoea. Metastatic disease was confirmed in 11 cats. The overall median survival was 97 days. The median survival times for patients who received chemotherapy or had their masses surgically removed was 165 days. Those patients who had an abdominal effusion present at the time of diagnosis survived a median of 30 days. Cats that received non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drug therapy had a median survival of 26 days. This study confirms that exocrine pancreatic carcinoma in cats is an aggressive tumour with a high metastatic rate and poor prognosis, although three patients survived over 1 year. Fifteen percent of the patients were diabetic, which raises the question as to what the link between diabetes and pancreatic cancer in people and cats may be.     

Study of virulence in field isolates of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus obtained from the northern part of Norway

In order to study the variety of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) strains involved in outbreaks of infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) in Atlantic salmon fish farms, samples were collected from 19 different outbreaks of IPN in the northern part of Norway. The main objective of this study was to examine whether IPNV isolates of different virulence were involved in the outbreaks and could explain the variable IPN protection observed in vaccinated post‐smolts in the field. Both the molecular basis of virulence of all field isolates and virulence expressed by mortality after bath challenge of unvaccinated post‐smolts with eight of the isolates were studied. Very little variation among the field isolates was detected when the 578‐bp variable region encoding the VP2 protein known to be involved in virulence was sequenced. The cumulative mortality after experimental challenge with field isolates genetically characterized as highly virulent was always high (40–56%), while the cumulative mortality of the same strains in vaccinated post‐smolts during the field outbreaks varied from 1 to 50%. Although the tested samples came from fish vaccinated with the same vaccine product, the protection against IPN varied. These results demonstrate that differences in virulence of the isolates were not the main reason for the variation in mortality in the field outbreaks. Most of the field isolates were of high virulence, which is shown in experimental challenges to be important for mortality, but clearly other factors that might affect the susceptibility of IPN also play an important role in the outcome of an IPNV infection.