Acute pancreatitis in aging animals: Loss of pancreatitis-associated protein protection?

Figure 1 Effect of age on pancreatic edema 24 h after induction of sodium taurocholate pancreatitis. A: A young rat with severe, grade 4 edema [hematoxylin and eosin (H and E), 40×]; B: An old rat with moderate, grade 3 edema (H and E, 40×); C: Mean ± SE histologic scoring of edema for both groups; D: Edema data calculated by wet:dry ratio of pancreatic tissue. While young vs old ratios are discussed in the text, when animals were sorted into young, aged (group a), very aged (group b) and most aged (group c) groups, a progressive decrease in edema was seen with age. A significant negative correlation was also noted (^aP < 0.05, Student’s t test). NaT: Sodium taurocholate; ANOVA: Analysis of variance.