Comparative Analysis of a Human Pancreatic Undifferentiated Cell Line (MIA PaCa-2) to Acinar and Ductal Cells

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal cell secretion has not been well characterized due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient quantities of purified ductal cells. To determine if the MIA PaCa-2 cell line would provide a useful model for in vitro studies of pancreatic ductal cell secretion, the present study was designed to characterize these cells in greater detail. In this investigation, the human pancreatic undifferentiated cell line, MIA PaCa-2, was compared with PANC-1 cells (a human ductal cell line previously characterized), isolated rat and human ducts, acinar cells, and nonpancreatic cell lines. The results indicate that while the morphology of the MIA PaCa-2 cell line is nonpolarized and generally atypical of either ductal or acinar cells, the cell line has retained certain biochemical similarities to ductal cells. Additional morphological studies indicated (a) the presence of intermediate filaments characteristic of epithelial cells, (b) the absence of zymogen granules, and (c) an apparent basolateral plasma membrane localization of Na+, K+-ATPase. Similar to ductal cells, biochemical analyses indicated (a) the presence of Na+, K+-ATPase based on [3H]-ouabain binding assays, (b) high levels of carbonic anhydrase, (c) low levels of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, (d) nondetectable levels of amylase, and (e) protein composition and protein synthetic patterns comparable to PANC-1 cells. Finally, as with PANC-1 cells and isolated rat and human ducts, the major sulfated secretory product of MIA PaCa-2 cells was a protein with a molecular weight of approximately 660,000 to 1 million.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)