Vascular access to the arterial side of the pancreas in the Syrian hamster

Abstract

In order to establish a new approach to the treatment of tumours of the exocrine pancreas of humans, this work was aimed at gaining vascular access to the arterial side of the pancreas in the Syrian hamster. There is to our knowledge no information available in the literature concerning the catheterisation of the arterial side of the pancreas in the Syrian hamster. Preliminary anatomical studies revealed that the coeliac artery could be a possible vascular access to the different lobes of the pancreas in the Syrian hamster. The lumen of the splenic artery is too small to be catheterised. Injection of Evan´s blue and plastic beads in different sizes into the coelic artery demonstrated distribution to the different lobes of the pancreas as well as to the spleen, the stomach, the duodenum, and the omentum.

This opens up the possibility of a treatment, using biodegradable plastic beads coated with immunomodulators injected on the arterial side of the pancreas, as well as alginate beads harbouring transfected cells, capable of delivering various substances in the area of interest.