Effect of secretin and VIP on isolated pancreatic duct fragments in vitro.

A modification of a technique to isolate kidney tubule fragments and pancreatic acinar cells has been used to prepare a suspension of pancreatic duct fragments from rats with pancreatic lipomatosis due to pretreatment with penicillamine and a copper-free diet. This suspension contains almost pure fractions of pancreatic duct fragments. The accumulation of 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) in response to secretin, VIP and theophylline was studied in these isolated pancreatic duct fragments. In the absence of theophylline, secretin increased the level of cAMP in a dose-dependent manner with a maximum at 10(-6) M. With supramaximal doses the concentration of cAMP decreased. Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) also increased the formation of cAMP. However, VIP was 10 times less effective than secretin on a molar basis. The addition of various concentrations of VIP to a submaximal dose of secretin did not alter cAMP levels as compared to the levels observed with the same concentration of secretin alone. Theophylline (5 x 10(-3) and 10(-2) M) stimulated cAMP accumulation and 5 x 10(-3) M theophylline potentiated the response to secretin and VIP. These data lend support to the hypothesis that cAMP is the intracellular mediator of the action of secretin and VIP on the pancreatic duct cells.