To determine if neutrophil‐depletion could prevent metaplasia in acute pancreatitis, an IHC stain for Cytokeratin‐19 was performed in vehicle‐treated and neutrophil‐depleted CD73−/− mice at Day 4, which showed vehicle‐treated mice, compared to neutrophil‐depleted mice, present significantly increased amounts of metaplasia per field, suggesting the absence of neutrophils restrains metaplasia in acute pancreatitis (p < .05) (Figure 6E,F). This evidence concerns the gene NT5E and acute pancreatitis.