Development of a transplantable model of pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma.

We report here the first development of a continuous cell line in tissue culture of an animal pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma that is histologically similar to human pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma. A primary pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma, induced in a male Syrian golden hamster after 23 weeks of weekly subcutaneous injection of N-nitrobis (2-hydroxypropyl)amine, was minced and injected subcutaneously into three hamsters. After 8 weeks, a single tumor was apparent. Subsequent passages of fragments into the cheek pouches were performed at 3- to 4-week intervals. After five passages, minced fragments of a tumor were placed in tissue culture. Colonies appeared by 7 days; an epitheloid cell line, without fibroblasts, was established by 60 days. Single-cell suspensions, injected into hamster cheek pouches or subcutaneously, produced tumors in a dose-dependent fashion. Spent culture medium of tissue culture cells and saline extracts of freshly excised tumors contained pancreatic oncofetal antigen-like activity.