Modification by sex of diet and ethanol effect on rat pancreatic acinar cell metabolism.

The present study was done to determine the role of sex of the animal on the effect of diet and ethanol on pancreatic acinar cell function. Weight-matched groups of Sprague-Dawley rats of either sex were divided into groups of three each and fed Wayne Lab-Blox ad libitum, Lieber-DeCarli diet with 36% of carbohydrate calories replaced with ethanol ad libitum, and Lieber-DeCarli diet in an amount isocaloric to ethanol-fed animals for a period of 3 months. Despite similar amounts of protein, fat, and carbohydrates fed to male and female rats, the female rats had lower amylase content in the tissue when fed Lieber-DeCarli diet and a higher specific activity of trypsinogen in the tissue of animals fed Lab-Blox. Specific activity of chymotrypsinogen increased in males fed Lieber-DeCarli diet and decreased in females fed the same diet when compared with animals of the same sex fed Lab-Blox. Secretion of various digestive enzymes was also different in male and female rats, whereas trypsin inhibitor secretion was similar. These data indicate different adaptive responses in male and female rats to diets with similar proportions of nutrients. When ethanol-fed male rats were compared with ethanol-fed female rats, there was a significant increase in secretion of trypsinogen and amylase (and a proportional but statistically nonsignificant increase in lipase) in female rats. These data indicate that chronic feeding of ethanol results in a nonparallel secretion of digestive enzymes in both sexes with a greater discordance between the trypsinogen secretion and trypsin inhibitor in female rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)