lincRNA‐EPS protects mice against NaTc‐SAP. (A) 24 hr post the retrograde infusion of injection of NaTc, activities of the serum amylase (left panel) and lipase (right panel) of sham WT (n = 4), sham lincRNA‐EPS‐/‐ (n = 4), NaTc‐SAP WT (n = 9) and NaTc‐SAP lincRNA‐EPS‐/‐ (n = 9) mice were measured via enzymatic methods. (B) Histological examination of the pancreas sections from the indicated mice by H&E staining (upper panel). Acinar cell apoptosis in the pancreases from the indicated mice was measured by TUNEL staining (bottom panel). (C) Histology scores of pancreatitis were evaluated based on the representative field of the pancreas sections from the indicated mice, group sizes were described in (A). (D) TUNEL+ cells were calculated based on the representative field of the pancreas sections from the indicated mice, sham WT (n = 3), sham lincRNA‐EPS‐/‐ (n = 3), NaTc‐SAP WT (n = 4) and NaTc‐SAP lincRNA‐EPS‐/‐ (n = 4). Data of (B) are shown as representative pancreas sections from the indicated mice; scale bar, 100 µm. Data of (A), (C) And (D) are shown as the mean ± SD of one representative experiment from three independent experiments. *P < 0·05 and **P < 0·01 by unpaired Student's t‐test.