Independent secretion of different digestive enzymes by the pancreas

Pancreatic secretion was collected from the cannulated duct of anesthetized rabbits during the perfusion of the upper duodenum with a balanced salt solution with or without 5 mM glucose. The secretion of amylase, chymotrypsinogen, trypsinogen, and total protein was measured. While glucose did not increase overall digestive enzyme secretion, it did change the proportions of the enzymes in secretion. In addition, the following was observed: 1) non-0,0 intercepts when the output of one enzyme was plotted against that of another (an enzyme-pair plot), 2) changes in the variance of the slope and intercept of enzyme-pair plots, and 3) an increase in the variance around the slope of an enzyme-pair plot, concurrent with a decrease in the variance around the slope of a plot for another enzyme pair that contained a common member. These observations suggest that different digestive enzymes can be secreted independently of each other.

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