“…These findings support the view that p38 MAP kinase regulates proinflammatory transcription factors such as NF-ĸB in pancreatic exocrine cells. This is significant because of the roles that CCK and TNF-α play in exacerbating acute inflammation in experimental models of acute pancreatitis [1,19,20,21,22,23]. Investigations using the donor rat model have shown that bile-pancreatic juice exclusion from gut exacerbates duct ligation-induced acute pancreatitis and also increases pancreatic phosphorylation of stress kinases (JNK, ERK, p38), activation of NF-ĸB, and production of proinflammatory mediators [15,24,25,26,27].…”