Evidence in vivo of asynchronous intracellular transport of rat pancreatic secretory proteins

Nonparallel patterns of circadian pancreatic and biliary secretions in fasting rats

We compared the circadian patterns of pancreatic and biliary secretions in fasting rats. For this purpose, indwelling plastic catheters were placed in 10 male Wistar rats (300-320 g) for the collection of biliary and pancreatic secretions. After small samples were taken for analysis, pancreatic and biliary secretions were recirculated into the duodenum by an additional connecting system. The rats were adapted to an inverse night-day cycle by artificial light during the night (8 PM-8 AM) and by darkroom housing at daytime (8 AM-8 PM). During a 24-h fasting period, samples of bile (100 microL) and pancreatic juice (20 microL) were taken every hour for determination of the following parameters: pancreatic and biliary flow rate, protein, amylase, lipase, trypsin, and bile acid output. Peak pancreatic flow rate (1.96 +/- 0.05 mL/h.kg) was achieved toward the end of the dark period at 7 PM. A significant increase of pancreatic secretion could be achieved merely by turning the lights off, a significant decrease by turning the lights on. Similar circadian patterns were found for pancreatic protein, amylase, and lipase output with peak secretions at 7 PM. An increase of nearly 5x was found between minimal (15.64 +/- 0.65 mg/h.kg) and maximal (72.43 +/- 2.83 mg/h.kg) pancreatic protein output. The amplitude was highest for amylase; peak amylase output (13740 +/- 832 U/h.kg) was about 18-fold above minimal output (758 +/- 44.3 U/h.kg). Conversely, the peak of trypsin concentration in pancreatic juice (1095 +/- 17.8 U/mL) occurred during the light period when flow rates were lowest.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The asynchronous transport of secretory proteins in the exocrine pancreas. Compatibility with the hypothesis of a paragranular pathway?

An asynchronous transport of individual secretory proteins has been recently described in the pancreas. This asynchrony was observed in both unstimulated and stimulated conditions. It has also been proposed that unstimulated and stimulated secretions correspond to distinct secretory processes. Indeed according to that hypothesis, under resting conditions, a small fraction of the newly synthesized secretory proteins are channeled into a paragranular (vesicle) pathway while the residual proteins are packaged in the zymogen granules. These zymogen granules eventually move to the cell surface where their content is extruded by exocytosis. Under stimulated conditions the latter process is accelerated. Since the same type of asynchrony is observed under resting and stimulated conditions in the pancreatic juice, one can wonder if the hypothesis of a paragranular pathway is compatible with the observed asynchrony. In this review, an explanation is presented to account for the facts that following pulse and chase labelling, two waves of labelled proteins are released under resting secretions and secondly that asynchrony is maintained in both resting and stimulated conditions.