COMMENTARY

Pancreatitis

Human pancreatitis and the role of cathepsin B

M M Lerch¹, W Halangk²

¹ Department of Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, and Nutrition, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald, Germany
² Department of Surgery, Division of Experimental Surgery, Otto-von-Guericke- Universität, Magdeburg, Germany

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor M M Lerch
Department of Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, and Nutrition, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald, Friedrich-Loeffler-Str 23A, 17487 Greifswald, Germany; lerch@uni-greifswald.de

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Any assumption about the role of the newly detected cathepsin B polymorphisms in pancreatitis must, for now, remain speculative

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Keywords: tropical calcific pancreatitis; pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor; N34S SPINK1 mutation; cathepsin B; polymorphisms

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Acute pancreatitis has long been considered an autodigestive disorder in which the pancreas is destroyed by its own digestive proteases.¹ Under physiological conditions pancreatic proteases are synthesised as inactive precursor zymogens and stored by acinar cells in zymogen granules. Autodigestion of the gland would therefore require premature activation of these zymogens. How and where such a premature and intrapancreatic activation of digestive proenzymes is initiated in the course of pancreatitis has been the subject of several investigations.^2,3 Recent studies strongly suggest that the early pathophysiological events that eventually lead to necrosis of pancreatic tissue originate in acinar cells^3–5 and involve the intracellular presence of active trypsin,^5,6 a serine proteinase capable of activating other pancreatic zymogens. Within pancreatic acinar cells cytoplasmic vesicles have been identified as the subcellular compartment in which premature trypsinogen activation begins within minutes after induction of experimental pancreatitis.^3,7,8

The molecular mechanisms responsible for the intracellular activation . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Association of cathepsin B gene polymorphisms with tropical calcific pancreatitis

S Mahurkar, M M Idris, D N Reddy, S Bhaskar, G V Rao, V Thomas, L Singh, and G R Chandak
Gut 2006 55: 1270-1275. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Weiss, F U, Behn, C-O, Simon, P, Ruthenburger, M, Halangk, W, Lerch, M M (2007). Cathepsin B gene polymorphism Val26 is not associated with idiopathic chronic pancreatitis in European patients. Gut 56: 1322-1323 [Full Text]