ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A NOVEL HUMAN PANCREAS-SPECIFIC GENE, PANCPIN, THAT IS DOWN-REGULATED IN PANCREATIC-CANCER CELLS

By means of the differential display method, we isolated a novel human gene that is expressed specifically in pancreas. The cDNA, designated ''pancpin,'' contained an open reading frame of 1,215 nucleotides enc oding a 405 amino acid protein, showing a high degree of similarity to serine protease inhibitors belonging to the serpin superfamily. To in vestigate its possible role in pancreatic carcinogenesis, we looked fo r genetic alterations of this gene in pancreatic cancer cell lines and primary pancreatic cancer tissues. Expression of pancpin was barely d electable in any of the four pancreatic cancer cell lines examined, an d very weak also in 10 of 13 pancreatic cancer tissues. A somatic miss ense mutation at codon 221 was found in two of 16 primary pancreatic c ancers. These findings indicate that down-regulation of pancpin expres sion may play a significant role in development or progression of panc reatic cancer. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.