Etiology and pathogenesis of chronic pancreatitis                     WANG Xing-peng*, ZHANG Ru-ling. *Tenth People’s Hospital of Tongji University, Shanghai 200072, China
Corresponding author: WANG Xing-peng, E-mail: wangxp1965@yahoo.com.cn
Abstract    Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is the progressive and permanent destruction of the pancreas resulting in exocrine and endocrine insufficiency. The typical pathological change of CP is pancreatic fibrosis, which could cause persistent or recurrent abdominal pain as well as loss of pancreatic endo- and exocrine function. The etiology and pathogenesis of CP are multifactorial, including cholelithiasis, alcoholism, genetic predisposition and autoimmune factors. However, the incidence of CP should be a result of multiple etiological factors, and the individual pathogenesis remains unclear. Further researches of individual etiology and pathogenesis of CP would be helpful to the prevention and treatment of this disease.