. Caerulein-induced acute pancreatitis inhibits protein synthesis through effects on eIF2B and eIF4F. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 285: G517-G528, 2003. First published May 28, 2003 10.1152/ajpgi.00540.2002.-Acute pancreatitis (AP) has been shown in some studies to inhibit total protein synthesis in the pancreas, whereas in other studies, protein synthesis was not affected. Previous in vitro work has shown that high concentrations of cholecystokinin both inhibit protein synthesis and inhibit the activity of the guanine nucleotide exchange factor eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF)2B by increasing the phosphorylation of eIF2␣. We therefore evaluated in C57BL /6 mice the effects of caerulein-induced AP on pancreatic protein synthesis, eIF2B activity and other protein translation regulatory mechanisms. Repetitive hourly injections of caerulein were administered at 50 g/kg ip. Pancreatic protein synthesis was reduced 10 min after the initial caerulein administration and was further inhibited after three and five hourly injections. Caerulein inhibited the two major regulatory points of translation initiation: the activity of the guanine nucleotide exchange factor eIF2B (with an increase of eIF2␣ phosphorylation) and the formation of the eIF4F complex due, in part, to degradation of eIF4G. This inhibition was not accounted for by changes in the upstream stimulatory pathway, because caerulein activated Akt as well as phosphorylating the downstream effectors of mTOR, 4E-BP1, and ribosomal protein S6. Caerulein also decreased the phosphorylation of the eukaryotic elongation factor 2, implying that this translation factor was not inhibited in AP. Thus the inhibition of pancreatic protein synthesis in this model of AP most likely results from the inhibition of translation initiation as a result of increased eIF2␣ phosphorylation, reduction of eIF2B activity, and the inhibition of eIF4F complex formation. protein translation; mice IT HAS BEEN WELL ESTABLISHED that experimental acute pancreatitis (AP) inhibits pancreatic exocrine secretion (32,36,55,60). It has also been reported that pancreatic protein synthesis is unaffected by AP, leading to accumulation of digestive enzymes (5,30,55,60). However, other studies have shown inhibition of pancreatic protein synthesis in both in vivo experimental AP studies (17,26,32,36,46) and in vitro models of AP using CCK hyperstimulation of isolated acini (31,48,56). This study seeks to clarify how protein synthesis is affected in an in vivo caerulein hyperstimulation model of AP in mice, using the "flooding dose" technique to measure protein synthesis and by analyzing the state of key regulatory mechanisms in protein translation.Protein synthesis or translation of mRNA into protein has several known major regulatory steps involving initiation and elongation phases. The first major step in translation initiation is the binding of the initiator tRNA iMet to the 40 S ribosomal subunit, which is regulated by the eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF)2 (27, 51). In order for eIF2 to p...