In troduc tion Although alcohol is considered to be the leading cause of acute and chronic pancreatitis, the mechanism by which ethanol causes pancreatitis is not well understood. Despite the recent development of medical imaging technology, the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis can be madeonly whenthe disease is fully established. This is owing to the lack of specific and sensitive markers for this disease (1). The recent discovery of genes responsible for cystic fibrosis (2) and hereditary pancreatitis (4) might be a breakthrough in under-