Putative pancreatic cancer-associated diabetogenic factor: 2030 MW peptide

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma causes diabetes mellitus by releasing factors interfering with glucose metabolism.

We verified in isolated rat hepatocytes the molecular weight (MW) of the fraction from pancreatic cancer cell conditioned media (CM) that altered glucose metabolism and ascertained, using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) analysis, whether there is any common peptide in CM and in the sera of patients with pancreatic cancer.

Sera was obtained from patients with pancreatic cancer ( n = 14) and chronic pancreatitis ( n = 9) and healthy control subjects ( n = 10). Conditioned medium (CM) was obtained from the following cell lines: MIA PaCa 2, PSK-1, PANC-1, and CAPAN-1. Two fractions (MW of less than 30,000 Da and less than 10,000 Da) were obtained from patients' sera, from CM, and from non-CM (NCM) after two-step ultrafiltration. Rat hepatocytes were incubated with CM and NCM. The peptide profile of patients' sera, CM, and NCM were analyzed using MALDI-MS.

In rat hepatocytes, glucose metabolism was impaired by CM from all the pancreatic cancer cell lines and by CM with an MW of less than 10,000 Da. Two peptides (m/z 2030 and 2726) were found in CM and patients' sera. Only the peptide at m/z 2030 was found to be associated with the presence of diabetes.

A peptide at m/z 2030 may be a putative pancreatic cancer-associated diabetogenic factor.