Anatomy of the Pancreas

Book description: This comprehensive three-volume encyclopedia is a comprehensive study of the entire digestive pathway, with nearly 500 focused articles. Each specific anatomical site such as the esophagus, stomach, liver, and pancreas is covered in its own subject area. The biology of gastroenterology is dealt with in areas such as anatomy and development, cell biology, and hormones, while clinical issues are also thoroughly covered in sections such as surgery, cancer, parasitology, and radiology and endoscopy

Do Animal Models of Acute Pancreatitis Reproduce Human Disease?Summary

Acute pancreatitis is currently the most common cause of hospital admission among all nonmalignant gastrointestinal diseases. To understand the pathophysiology of the disease and as a potential step toward developing targeted therapies, attempts to induce the disease experimentally began more than 100 years ago. Recent decades have seen progress in developing new experimental pancreatitis models as well as elucidating many underlying cell biological and pathophysiological disease mechanisms. Some models have been developed to reflect specific causes of acute pancreatitis in human beings. However, the paucity of data relating to the molecular mechanisms of human disease, the likelihood that multiple genetic and environmental factors affect the risk of disease development and its severity, and the limited information regarding the natural history of disease in human beings make it difficult to evaluate the value of disease models. Here, we provide an overview of key models and discuss our views on their strengths for characterizing cell biological disease mechanisms or for identifying potential therapeutic targets. We also acknowledge their limitations. Keywords: Acute Pancreatitis, Animal Models, Caerulein, Alcoho