Kidney bean and soybean lectins cause enzyme secretion by pancreatic acini in vitro.

The responses of pancreas acini from Hooded-Lister rats to kidney bean E2L2 lectin or soybean agglutinin have been studied in vitro. Both lectins induced secretion of alpha-amylase from acini in a dose dependent manner. However, the concentrations of lectin required to cause enzyme secretion were approximately 14-fold higher than that necessary with CCK-8. In addition, the responsiveness of pancreas acini to lectins in vitro was significantly altered by the age and sex of the rats from which the acini were derived.