Cellular and subcellular effects of ischemia on the pancreatic acinar cell: in vitro studies of rat tissue.

Rat pancreatic slices were incubated at 37 degrees C in vitro, in order to determine if complete ischemia would reproduce the subcellular alterations seen in human pancreatic acinar cells following shock. The ultrastructural alterations observed were similar to those seen in humans and in animal models of hypovolemic shock. These changes ranged from dilated endoplasmic reticulum and swollen mitochondria (reversible changes) to mitochondrial flocculent densities and later stages (evidence of cell death). In this in vitro study the pancreas remained in an apparently reversible stage longer than liver, heart, kidney, and brain treated similarly. However, once the pancreatic cells died, necrotic breakdown occurred very rapidly, perhaps due to intracellular release of lysosomal and zymogen granule hydrolases.