Abstract: To investigate the effect of endogenous nitric oxide (NO) on acute necrosis pancreatitis in rats and its relationship to phospholipase A₂(PLA₂) activity in pancreas, acute necrosis pancreatitis in rats was induced by retrograde sodium taurocholate (5%) infusion into the pancreatobiliary duct (1 mL/kg), and NG-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA) was used as the inhibitor of endogenous NO. The effect of endogenous NO on pancreatic injury and pancreatic tissue PLA₂ activity was evaluated respectively. Results showed that Sodium taurocholate administration induced evident pancreatic tissue edema and acinar necrosis, and the intrapancreatic hemorrhage occurred in some rats. Pretreatment with the NO inhibitor, L-NNA (12.5 mg/kg) , significantly intensified pancreatic injury, but had no effect on the PLA₂ activity in pancreatic tissue. The above results suggest that endogenous NO has the effect of pancreatic protection, but it seemed that the protection is unrelated to PLA₂ activity of pancreatic tissue.

Key words: nitric oxide, pancreas inflammatory, phospholipase A₂