Establishment and characterization of human pancreatic carcinoma lines with a high metastatic potential in the liver of nude mice

To investigate of human pancreatic cancer metastasis to the liver, a pancre atic carcinoma line, HPC-3, was injected into the spleens of nude mice. The cells from a few liver metastatic foci of the mite injected with HPC-3 wer e expanded in vitro and subsequently injected into the spleens of nude mice . By repeating these procedures, we were able to obtain a cell line, design ated HPC-3H4. The mice were observed to have liver metastasis in 6 of 6 (10 0%) cases injected with HPC-3H4, whereas the rate was 0% at 3 weeks after t he intrasplenic injection of HPC-3. The tumorigenicity of HPC-3H4 was more rapid than that of HPC-3. The motile activity of HPC-3H4 was also stronger than that of HPC-3, and the adhesion to the extracellular matrix of HPC-3H4 was stronger than that of HPC-3. We also analyzed the cell surface express ion of the metastasis-related adhesion molecules. As a result, no substanti al changes were observed in the expression level of adhesion molecules. The se results suggest that HPC-3H4 is useful for studies aimed at the preventi on of liver metastasis.