Figure 4.

Rab9 overexpression aggravates experimental pancreatitis. (A–C, O, and P) IB analysis of indicated proteins in the whole tissue (A, O, and P) and pancreatic membrane and cytosolic pancreas fractions (B and C) from WT and Rab9^TG mice subjected to CER-AP (7 hours). In (A), the asterisk (∗) indicates longer exposure. (D–P) Parameters of CER-AP (7 hours) and Arg-AP (24 hours) in WT and Rab9^TG mice. Histopathologic changes (D), necrosis (E and F), and inflammatory cell infiltration (H and I) were measured on H&E-stained pancreatic tissue sections; macrophage infiltration (J and K), by immunostaining for macrophage marker F4/80; intrapancreatic caspase-3-like (G) and trypsin (L) activities, with enzymatic assays. (P) Densitometric band intensities for indicated proteins were normalized to ERK in the same sample and further to those in WT control (saline-treated) group. Values are mean ± SEM from 3–10 mice per group. In (E–I and L–N), each symbol represents an individual mouse; in (K), the number of positively stained macrophages in a different high-power field (n = 10–20 fields from 3 to 5 mice per group). ∗P < .05, ∗∗P < .01, ∗∗∗P < .001 vs WT control (saline-treated) mice. ^#P < .05, ^###P < .001 vs WT CER-AP. ˆˆP < .01, ˆˆˆP < .001 vs Rab9^TG control (saline-treated) mice. Significance was determined by 1-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey multiple comparisons test. Scale bars, 20 μm.