Abstract
Summary The response of rat pancreatic acinar cells to serum-mediated injury was studied in vitro. Pancreatic fragments from Wistar rats were incubated for 15 and 30 minutes and 1 and 3 hour in fresh, and for 30 minutes and 3 hours in heat-inactivated (at 56 °C for 30 minutes) serum from normal nonim-munized rabbits under 95% O2-5% CO2 atmosphere at 37 °C. The tissues were processed for electron microscopy by glutaraldehyde and osmium tetroxide fixation and Epon embedding. The early changes in the acinar cells incubated in fresh serum were swelling of the granular endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria. In necrotic cells the endoplasmic reticulum was broken down into dilated vesicles. The mitochondria contained large dense granules of irregular shapes in the matrix. The zymogen granules were morphologically well preserved. The acinar cell ultrastructure was essentially normal in the tissues incubated in heat-inactivated serum. It was concluded that fresh rabbit serum was cytotoxic to rat pancreatic acinar cells in vitro and that the cell injury was a complement-dependent phenomenon mediated through a rapid plasma membrane injury rather than caused by zymogen activation and autodigestion.
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