The nuclear transcription factor NF-κB, a key signal triggered during pancreatitis, regulates the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, immune receptors, and other inflammatory molecules (Gukovsky et al., 1998; Frossard et al., 1999; Tak and Firestein, 2001; Vaquero et al., 2001), which are responsible for the severe systemic inflammatory complications of the disease (Grady et al., 1997; Frossard et al., 1999; Satoh et al., 1999; Bhatia et al., 2000; Vaquero et al., 2001; Chen et al., 2002). This evidence concerns the gene NFKB1 and pancreatitis.