Chronic stress sensitizes rats to pancreatitis induced by cerulein: Role of TNF-α

Table 6 Pancreatic caspases (mean ± SE)

Group	CASP-2	CASP-3	CASP-8	CASP-9
Stress (-)
Veh	34 ± 6	25 ± 2	45 ± 5	40 ± 7
Cer	56 ± 12	63 ± 9	87 ± 11	82 ± 8
Anti-TNF-α + Cer	50 ± 7	39 ± 5	72 ± 7	68 ± 9
Stress (+)
Veh	124 ± 15	118 ± 10	189 ± 11	158 ± 16
Cer	995 ± 88a	838 ± 74a	1123 ± 103a	1079 ± 70a
Anti-TNF-α + Cer	696 ± 47c	544 ± 58c	887 ± 65c	679 ± 48c

Pancreatic caspases are expressed as pmol/min per milligram protein.

^aP < 0.05 vs control-vehicle Stress (-) group;

^cP < 0.05 vs Stress (+) plus Cer group. TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-α; CASP: Caspase.