Changes in pancreatic acinar cells during protein deprivation.
After 10 days of a protein-free diet the acinar cells of the rat pancreas showed a coarsening of nuclear matrix, depletion of zymogen granules, some loss of ribosomes, and a widening of the spaces between ergastoplasmic membranes. In addition, there could be found, but rarely, a lesion of the ergastoplasm consisting of vacuoles of agranular, disoriented membranes, which was similar to a lesion produced by ethionine. Thereafter, a return toward normal structure occurred which was characterized by beginning increase in the size of the Golgi apparatus at 12 days, appearance of zymogen granules at 18 days, and a relatively normal appearing but smaller cell at 28 days. After 10 to 12 days of protein deprivation a reversal of many of the morphologic effects of protein deprivation was accompanied by a return toward normal of some pancreatic enzyme activities. Possibly this spontaneous return toward normal levels represented a raiding of protein stores, or it may have been an adaptive phenomenon.
D061354:Acinar Cells; D000818:Animals; D004721:Endoplasmic Reticulum; D005001:Ethionine; D006056:Golgi Apparatus; D010179:Pancreas / Q000473:pathology*; D011488:Protein Deficiency; D011506:Proteins; D051381:Rats; D012270:Ribosomes; D014617:Vacuoles
D011506:Proteins; D005001:Ethionine
PANCREAS/pathology; PROTEINS/deficiency