Hughes et al. (A-66) point out that systemic complications in acute pancreatitis are largely responsible for mortality associated with the disease. They note further that proinflammatory cytokines, particularly TNFa, may play a central role in acute pancreatitis by mediating the systemic sequelae. In their research they used a bile-infusion model of acute pancreatitis to show amelioration of disease severity as well as an improvement in overall survival by TNFa inhibition. Experimental material consisted of adult male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing between 250 and 300 grams divided into three groups: untreated (bile solution infused without treatment); treated (bile solution infused preceded by treatment with polyclonal anti TNFa antibody); and sham (saline infused). Among the data collected were the following hematocrit (%) values for animals surviving more than 48 hours:

Sham Untreated Treated 38 56 40 40 60 42 32 50 38 36 50 46 40 50 36 40 35 38 40 40 40 38 55 40 35 36 40 40 35 45 Source: Data provided courtesy of Dr. A. Osama Gaber.