Cell-kinetic analysis of pancreatic cancers in Syrian golden hamsters

Cell-kinetic analysis of pancreatic cancers using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) was performed on four transplantable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, which were experimentally induced by giving N-nitrosobis (2-hydroxypropyl) amine (BHP) to Syrian golden hamsters. The volume-doubling time (Td) of the tumor was 0.43, 1.03, 2.30, and 3.50 d for tumor lines J, D, B, and F, respectively. In the pulse-labeling study, the labeling index was 15.8, 23.3, 27.9, and 31.7, respectively. The most rapidly growing tumor line, J, unexpectedly showed the lowest BrdU-labeling index (LI). The further study of tumor using the cumulative-labeling method revealed that the duration of S phase (Ts), the generation time (Tg) and the growth fraction (GF) were 2 h, 14 h, and 90% for tumor J and 12 h, 37 h, and 85% for slowly growing tumor B, respectively. Cells of limited life span (CLLS) of these lines did not differ from each other. These results conclude that the marked difference of Tg between tumor lines J and B resulted in a distinction of their growth rates. The disagreement of Ts/Tg also lead to a reversion of LI between the two lines. Furthermore, LI of BrdU with one-point pulse labeling did not seem to be a sufficient indicator of the growth characteristics, at least, in the present experiment.