title: Caerulein stimulates pancreatic secretory response in conscious newborn rats.
abstract: The aim of our study was to measure age-dependent, caerulein-stimulated pancreatic enzyme secretion of conscious CFY suckling rats without pancreatic duct cannulation. Pancreatic secretory response was expressed as the decrease in specific enzyme (trypsin, amylase) activity compared to saline-injected control. The study was performed in three phases. In 10-d-old conscious newborn rats, single 1 and 3 micrograms/kg sc doses of caerulein induced significant decreases in specific trypsin (42 and 47%) and amylase (34 and 33%) activity 15 min after the caerulein injection; the same doses injected at 0 and 30 min evoked a similar decrease 90 min after the first injection. The 0.5 microgram/kg dose was ineffective. In 10-d-old anesthetized rats, the 90-min-decrease in total pancreatic trypsin activity, induced by graded doses (1,3,10, and 30 micrograms/kg) of caerulein, was compared to the 90-min output of trypsin in their bile-pancreatic juice. Each of the applied doses induced significant change in the total trypsin activity both in the pancreas (-33-57%) and juice (+21 +/- 49%) and its decrease in the gland corresponded quantitatively well (r = 0.52; p less than 0.01) to the increase in the simultaneous 90-min trypsin output. The age- and dose-dependent pancreatic response of 3-, 5-, 10-, and 20-d-old conscious rats was investigated under the effect of 1,3,10, and 30 micrograms/kg sc doses of caerulein injected at 0 and 30 min. In 3-d-old rats, the 10 and 30 micrograms/kg and in 20-d-old rats, the 1 and 3 micrograms/kg doses were effective, whereas in 5- and 10-d-old rats each caerulein dose applied evoked a significant decrease in pancreatic-specific trypsin activity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The pancreas of newborn rats is in vivo less sensitive to caerulein between postnatal d 3 and 10 than in already weaned rats.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Papp
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Dreiling
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dobronyi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Varga
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002108:Ceruletide / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003243:Consciousness; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D010179:Pancreas / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013997:Time Factors; D014357:Trypsin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002108:Ceruletide; D014357:Trypsin