The prognosis of pancreatic cystadenocarcinoma is known to be relatively favorable, unlike poor prognosis of the majority of pancreatic cancers. However, little is known about the pathogenesis and mode of progression of this cancer. We report on a newly established pancreatic cystadenocarcinoma cell line, OCUP-1. Its characteristics were compared to those of cells derived from pancreatic ductal cell carcinoma. OCUP-1 was established by successive culture of cancer cells obtained during an operation for pancreatic cystadenocarcinoma. This cell line demonstrated mono-layered proliferation and a doubling time of 80.3 h, which was 2.1 to 5.3 times longer than that of six ductal cell carcinoma-derived cell lines. Cell cycle time agreed with the doubling time. Tumors could be produced in all nude mice by inoculating cells from the 6 different ductal cell carcinoma derived cell lines without pre-treatment. However, with OCUP-1 cell line inoculation, the nude mice had to be pre-treated with asialo-GM1 - an inhibitor of natural killer cell activity - for tumors to be produced. Although the newly established OCUP-1 cell line demonstrated low proliferative activity, its genetic characteristics (point mutation at codon 12) were similar to those of other cells derived from ductal cell carcinomas. The OCUP-1 cell line may be used to investigate the pathogenesis and progression of pancreatic cystadenocarcinomas.

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