Figure 9.

Molecular quantitation of bacterial levels in pancreatic tissue in unoperated controls, sham-operated animals and 24 h after sodium taurocholate pancreatitis. DNA from pancreas was subjected to semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using probes for the genomic sequences of bacterial ribosomal RNA. Top Panel shows representative polyacrylamide gels showing the 370 base pair PCR product; Bottom graph shows quantitated values from multiple experiments. No differences were seen between controls and sham-operated animals (not shown). There were significant differences in bacterial genomic levels between sham and sodium taurocholate (NaT) animals (^aP < 0.05), and between young and old (^bP = 0.008) NaT animals, when percent increases were compared (Mann-Whitney U test).