Adaptation of the pancreas during treatment with enzyme inhibitors in rats and man.

This report deals with the effect of feeding inhibitors of pancreatic and brush border enzymes on pancreatic growth and enzyme composition and secretion. Raw soybean flour containing trypsin inhibitors caused pronounced growth of the pancreas which was accompanied by increased enzyme content and increased CCK and gastrin concentration in the plasma. Feeding of an amylase inhibitor to a starch-rich diet induced a marked fall in amylase content and secretion without changing growth parameters of the pancreas, indicating that not starch but glucose is the trigger for the maintenance of amylase content and secretion of the pancreas. The addition of an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor (acarbose) to a sucrose- or maltose-rich semisynthetic diet did not cause significant alteration in pancreatic growth or enzyme composition or secretion. In man pancreatic function was also unaltered by 8 weeks' intake of 3 X 200 mg acarbose.