Background: Acute pancreatitis, especially acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP), is a serious disease with a high morbidity because of multiorgan dysfunction. Recent studies have indicated that during the pathogenesis of ANP, changes of the microcirculation play an important role in the worsening of the disease. This study based on a model of acute pancreatitis in Wistar rats was to determine the effect of treatment with low-dose dopamine on acute pancreatitis by the dynamic measurement of serum levels of inflammatory factors IL-6 and TNF-alpha.
Methods: Fifty Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups, and a model of ANP was set up by injecting sodium taurocholate into the pancreatic duct. Rats in the dopamine group (treatment group) were given dopamine by vein and those in the acute pancreatitis group (control group) were given normal saline. To assess the effect of low-dose dopamine (5 mug.kg-1.min-1) on induced acute pancreatitis, the antibody sandwich ELISA method was used to measure the serum levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha at different times before and after the induction of ANP.
Results: The serum levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha in the treatment and control groups before and after ANP induction were significantly different. There was a markedly significant difference in the comparison of the two groups after ANP induction (P<0.01), but no significant difference in the comparison before the induction (P>0.05). Postoperative pancreatic histopathologic changes in the treatment group were more marked than those in the control group.
Conclusions: Low-dose dopamine is effective in treating ANP by alleviating inflammatory reactions. This effect may be related to the fact that low-dose dopamine not only can increase the blood flow of the pancreatic microcirculation but also reduce its permeability.