Figure 7.

Effect of ethanol and its metabolite acetaldehyde on matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) secretion by pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs). (A) Representative western blot for MMP2 expression in cells incubated for 24 hours with either culture medium alone (Control), ethanol (10 and 50 mmol/l; E10 and E50, respectively) or acetaldehyde (150 and 200 μmol/l; A150 and A200, respectively). (B) Densitometry of all western blots (n=5 separate cell preparations) showed that both ethanol (E10 and E50) and acetaldehyde (A150 and A200) significantly increased MMP2 secretion by PSCs compared with controls (*p<0.05).