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Altered Morphology And Composition Of Zymogen Granules In Acute Pancreatitis, Amanda Flack

Wayne State University Dissertations

In healthy physiology, pancreatic digestive enzymes secreted following a meal are stored as inactive zymogens within membrane bound secretory vesicles called Zymogen Granules (ZG), and activated extracellularly. In acute pancreatitis however, the digestive enzymes are prematurely activated within the cell, resulting in autodigestion of the tissue. Pancreatitis is a gastrointestinal disorder in which there are over 200,000 hospitalizations per year with a 5% mortality rate. It has been demonstrated that in acute pancreatitis the digestive enzymes are blocked from being secreted and are activated within the cell leading to acinar cell and surrounding pancreatic tissue death. Little is known about …