Oxidative stress and acute pancreatitis (Review)

Abstract

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a common inflammatory disorder of the exocrine pancreas that causes severe morbidity and mortality. Although the pathophysiology of AP is poorly understood, a substantial body of evidence suggests some critical events for this disease, such as dysregulation of digestive enzyme production, cytoplasmic vacuolization, acinar cell death, edema formation, and inflammatory cell infiltration into the pancreas. Oxidative stress plays a role in the acute inflammatory response. The present review clarified the role of oxidative stress in the occurrence and development of AP by introducing oxidative stress to disrupt cellular Ca2⁺ balance and stimulating transcription factor activation and excessive release of inflammatory mediators for the application of antioxidant adjuvant therapy in the treatment of AP.

Keywords: acute pancreatitis; antioxidant therapy; antioxidants; oxidative stress; reactive oxygen species.

Figure 1

Schematic of oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis. Activation of inflammatory pathways such as NF-κB, MAPK, PI3k-Akt in the acinar cell leads to an intense inflammatory reaction responsible for local injury and the systemic inflammatory response in acute pancreatitis.