Depleting apolipoprotein C3 alleviates acute pancreatitis in hamsters but not in mice

Figure 2 Inactivation of apolipoprotein C3 alleviates caerulein-induced acute pancreatitis in hamsters. A: Time-course curves of plasma amylase and lipase activities in wild type (WT) hamsters; B: Experimental timeline: 8- to 9-week-old male hamsters were intraperitoneally injected with caerulein (50 μg/kg) every hour for a total of 10 times, and samples were collected 24 hours after the first injection; C-F: Plasma biochemical parameters among different treatment groups, including triglycerides (C), NEFA (D), amylase activity (E), and lipase activity (F), n = 3-4; G: Representative hematoxylin and eosin staining of pancreatic tissue; enlarged views of selected areas are shown below; H-K: Quantitative histological scoring of pancreatic tissue: Oedema (H), inflammation (I), necrosis (J), and total pathology score (K), n = 3-4; L-P: Relative mRNA expression levels of inflammation- and apoptosis-related genes in the pancreas: Tnf-α (L), Il-6 (M), Nlrp3 (N), Bax (O), and Il-18 (P), n = 3-4; Q and R: Representative immunofluorescence staining of MPO (green) with DAPI (blue) for nuclear counterstaining (Q), and quantitative analysis of relative MPO-positive areas (R) in pancreatic tissue of WT and apolipoprotein C3 knockout (ApoC3^-/-) hamsters. White arrowheads indicate MPO-positive staining; scale bar: 75 μm; S and T: Immunofluorescence staining of CD68 (green) with DAPI (blue) (S), and quantification of relative CD68-positive areas (T) in pancreatic tissue of WT and ApoC3^-/- hamsters. White arrowheads indicate CD68-positive staining; scale bar: 75 μm. For each group, three animals were examined. Two fields of view per animal were quantified, and each field was considered an independent observation (n = 6 per group) for statistical comparisons. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM. ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01, ^cP < 0.001, and ^dP < 0.0001. ApoC3: Apolipoprotein C3; ApoC3^-/-: Apolipoprotein C3 knockout; AP: Acute pancreatitis; HE: Hematoxylin and eosin; NEFA: Non-esterified fatty acids; Tnf-α: Tumor necrosis factor-α; Il-6: Interleukin-6; Nlrp3: NLR family pyrin domain containing 3; Bax: BCL2-associated X protein; Il-18: Interleukin-18; DAPI: 4’,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole; MPO: Myeloperoxidase; CD68: Cluster of differentiation 68.