Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic pattern of duodenal tumour proteins

We investigated the protein pattern of a surgically resected tumour in a case where it was difficult to distinguish between duodenal and pancreatic cancer. The investigation was performed using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with silver staining. Samples of the duodenal tumour, normal duodenal mucosa and normal pancreatic tissue from the same patient were compared. Each gel had ca. 250-300 protein spots, and the tumour sample pattern more closely resembled that of normal duodenal mucosa than that of pancreatic tissue, suggesting that the tumour had arisen from duodenal mucosa. There were three proteins identified only in the tumour sample gel, and these may have been tumour-specific proteins.