Establishment and characterization of two human pancreatic cancer cell lines tumorigenic in athymic mice.

Two human pancreatic cancer lines, RWP-1 and RWP-2, have been established from 2 patients with primary pancreatic cancer metastatic to the liver. The patients' tumors, the xenografted tumors, and tumors obtained by inoculation of nude mice with cultured RWP-1 and RWP-2 cells are all moderately-well-differentiated ductal cell adenocarcinomas. Ultrastructural analysis supports the tissue histopathology findings. Xenografts of RWP-1 tumors double every 10 days, whereas the doubling time of RWP-2 xenografts is 22 days. Both tumors contain mucin. RWP-1 and RWP-2 cells have a doubling time in culture of 45 hr and form colonies in soft agar. RWP-1 cultures appear to be morphologically heterogeneous; two distinct epithelial cell types can be identified. RWP-1 and RWP-2 have modal chromosome numbers of 64 and 62, respectively. Appreciable levels of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and lactic dehydrogenase were found in both cell lines and xenografts. RWP-1 and RWP-2 cells produce appreciable amounts of carcinoembryonic antigen, 1090 and 414 ng/10(6) cells, respectively.