Receptors and ligands for autocrine growth pathways are up-regulated when pancreatic cancer cells are adapted to serum-free culture

Leon O. Murphy, Yasser H.A. Abdel-Wahab, Qiming J. Wang, Joseph A. Knezetic, Johan Permert, Jörgen Larsson, Anthony M. Hollingsworth, Thomas E. Adrian

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Overexpression of autocrine growth factors and their receptors has been reported in many human cancers. The study of autocrine-regulated pathways using in vitro culture systems can be hindered by the presence of fetal bovine serum in culture medium. A human pancreatic cancer cell line (HPAF) was slowly weaned from its dependence on fetal bovine serum and subsequently maintained in serum-free conditions. Growth factor secretion studies showed that production of autocrine growth factors such as transforming growth factor α, gastrin-releasing peptide, and insulin-like growth factor I from weaned cells increased three times compared with nonweaned cells (p < 0.01). The epidermal growth factor and gastrin-releasing peptide receptor densities were also increased in weaned cells (2 times and 2.5 times, respectively, p < 0.05). The proliferation of weaned cells cultured continuously in the same medium was significantly greater than of nonweaned cells (p < 0.05). Collectively, these data indicate that weaned pancreatic cancer cells can proliferate in the absence of serum by up-regulating autocrine pathways.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)293-298
Number of pages6
JournalPancreas
Volume22
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2001
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Autocrine growth factor
  • EGF
  • Pancreatic cancer
  • TGFα

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Internal Medicine
  • Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
  • Hepatology
  • Endocrinology

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